A study on the effect of multiple abrasive particle impact on the crater sphericity in AWJM using FEA

Abstract

The workhorse of the Titanium alloy industry i.e., Ti-6Al-4 V, is classified among the foremost widely utilized Titanium (Ti)-alloys and is broadly utilized in aviation and medication industry where low-density, supreme quality and exceptional erosion resistance are required. Since this material has high strength, it is very hard to process by means of conventional methods of machining. Therefore, unconventional machining methods like Abrasive Waterjet Machining (AWJM) become of great importance. Current work exhibits an explicit modelling of multiple abrasive particles impact on Ti-6Al-4 V in AWJM using Finite Element Analysis (FEA) approach. For experimental verification purpose, the crater geometry made on the Ti-6Al-4 V were determined and compared with the crater sphericity values obtained through FEA simulation. Also, the influence of velocity of abrasive particles and jet impact angle on sphericity of the crater was examined. For experimental verification of FEA simulations, the impact angle emerged as a key process parameter. The error between the simulation and experimental crater sphericity values was below 20%. It was also observed that the simulation results were accurate upto 0.04% for 90° impact angle and overall, the simulation model showed better results for 220 m/s abrasive particle velocity.