Investigation of gelatin enabled abrasive water slurry jet machining (AWSJM)

Abstract

The paper presents the development of an analytical model and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) model of abrasive water slurry jet machining (AWSJM), along with the experimental investigation of the micro-channel formation. The proposed work presents an improvised approach of AWSJM by equipping the conventional abrasive water jet (AWJ) machine with a setup for injecting polymer (Gelatin) solution into the AWJ nozzle, which leads to efficient energy transfer, improved cutting efficiency, and increased material removal rate. The CFD model is developed to simulate jet dynamic characteristics. The modeling of abrasive water jet machining (AWJM) and AWSJM process indicates that the calculated material removal rate is proportional to the power of the water jet. It is further proven from the analytical calculations that during the process of material removal, there is energy loss in both the AWJM and AWSJM. The results from the analytical model are validated through experiments performed on an AWJ machine. The micro-channels were fabricated to compare the depth of cut in the present research work. The analytical model developed to calculate the total depth of jet penetration correlates quite well with the experimental data. It is also observed that the maximum error predicted by the analytical expression and the simulation model for velocity and energy are within 10%.