Experimental Analysis and Soft Computing Modeling of Abrasive Waterjet Milling of Steel Workpieces

Panagiotis Karmiris-Obratański,Angelos P Markopoulos,Panagiotis Kyratsis,Nikolaos E Karkalos,Anastasios Tzotzis,G Mansour,P Kyratsis,D Tzetzis

doi:10.1051/matecconf/202031801031

Abstract

Conventional machining processes such as turning, milling and drilling have long been prominent in the metalworking industry but alternative processes which do not require the use of a cutting tool in order to conduct material removal have also been proven to be sufficiently capable of achieving high efficiency in various cases. In particular, Abrasive Waterjet (AWJ) machining can be regarded as a rather appropriate choice for cutting operations, taking into consideration that it involves no heat affected zones, is able to process all material types and create a variety of complex features with success. In the present work, a comprehensive study on the effect of four process parameters, namely jet traverse speed, stand-off distance, abrasive mass flow rate and jet pressure on the width and depth of machined slots on a steel workpiece is conducted. The results are first analyzed with statistical methods in order to determine the effect and the relative importance of each parameter on the produced width and depth of the slots. Finally, these results are used to develop soft computing predictive models based on Artificial Neural Networks (ANN), which can efficiently relate the process parameters with its outcome.

Highlights

Abrasive Water Jet (AWJ) machining is an unconventional process used for material removal, as an alternative to traditional cutting methods
These trends are anticipated as the abrasive flow rate and jet pressure affect the kinetic energy of the jet [9], creating deeper slots at high values, whereas higher traverse speed leads to shorter time for the jet to remove material from the workpiece at a certain region
The observations regarding the influence of each process parameter on depth are confirmed by Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) results, as it was found that the relative importance of vt, ma, h and P were 53.1%, 23.9%, 3.4% and 13.6%, respectively

Summary

Introduction

Abrasive Water Jet (AWJ) machining is an unconventional process used for material removal, as an alternative to traditional cutting methods. Pal and Tandon [2] conducted a similar experiment by AWJ machining of blind pockets on different materials, including stainless steel 304 and tool steel M2 Rc 20 They investigated the milling depth, materials characteristics, surface roughness and the milling time during controlled depth milling. For the same stainless steel, Yuvaraj, Pavithra, and Shamli [4] carried out experiments in order to achieve surface patterns through the controlled milling In this experimental study, a multicriteria technique was used to evaluate the effect of input parameters, namely jet pressure, traverse speed, stand-off distance and abrasive flow rate in the process. The results were compared with the theoretical relation between the traverse speed and taper angle and difference between the inlet and outlet width of kerf up to 35.4% and 44.9% was found at lower and higher traverse speed values, respectively

Methods

Results

Conclusion