Experimental investigations on high precision abrasive waterjet cutting of natural fibre reinforced nano clay filled green composites

Abstract

The present investigation focused on abrasive waterjet cutting (AWJC) of natural fibre reinforced nano clay filled polyester composites with the objectives of maximizing material removal rate ( MRR) and minimizing the kerf taper ( KT) and surface roughness ( Ra). The influence of nano clay addition, traverse speed (TS), jet pressure (JP) and stand-off distance (SOD) on the AWJC characteristics of fabricated composite laminates are investigated. The natural fibre reinforced composite (NFRC) laminates are fabricated through hand lay-up technique through varying the wt% of nano clay fillers (0, 1 and 2). The AWJC experiments are planned and rigorous experiments were performed by adopting box-behnken design approach. The relative consequence of process variables on response features and quadratic regression models were assessed through analysis of variance (ANOVA). Further, multiple response optimization is carried out using statistical desirability technique to enhance the cut quality characteristics. The optimal AWJC parameters such as JP of 316.24 MPa, SOD of 2 mm and TS of 304.24 mm/min with 1.15 wt% of nano clay addition are determined. Microstructure of cut surface is examined to ascertain the morphological behaviour of AWJC surfaces with different processing conditions.