An investigation into the abrasive waterjet milling circular pocket on titanium alloy

Abstract

This paper presents an experimental study on abrasive waterjet (AWJ) milling circular pockets of the titanium alloy Ti6Al4V workpieces. A material removal model is firstly deduced to understand the erosion process of AWJ milling. Experiments are conducted to research the effects of the processing parameters (water pressure, abrasive flow rate, traverse speed, and stand-off distance) on the performance of the milled circular pockets of Ti6Al4V workpieces. Dominating parameters and their interactive effects on the milling depth and roughness of milled surfaces are presented based on Box-Behnken design method. A comparative analysis is taken for the average milling depth, which is dominated by several dimensionless variables that control the final performance involved in the milled circular pocket. Subsequently, through quantitative assessments by the experiments, predictions by the material removal model are in good agreement with experimental results with an average deviation of 3.5%.