Experimental Investigations of Abrasive Waterjet Machining Parameters on Titanium Alloy Ti-6Al-4V Using RSM and Evolutionary Computational Techniques

Abstract

In this research, an experimental investigation has been carried out on the Abrasive Water Jet Machining (AWJM) process for the machining of Grade 5 Titanium alloy (Ti-6Al-4V) using the Response Surface Methodology (RSM). Process parameters such as Mesh size (M), Abrasive Flow Rate (AFR), Water Pressure (WP) and Traverse Speed (TS) have been considered. Their influence on the kerf taper angle (θ) and surface roughness (Ra) has been obtained. An L29 Box-Behnken experimental design has been used in this experiment. Regression models have been developed for correlating the data generated using experimental results. Evolutionary optimization techniques like Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO), Cuckoo Search Algorithm (CSA) and Simulated Annealing (SA) are attempted for the considered AWJM process. CSA outperformed all other algorithms by its optimal solution. The confirmatory experiments have been carried out to validate the predicted parameters from the CSA which effectively produced minimized experimental response.