ANURAG MAMGAIN

DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING

ABRASIVE WATER JET

MACHINE NOZZLES
UNCONVENTIONAL MANUFACTURING PROCESS

NAME: ANURAG MAMGAIN

CLASS ROLL NO.: 11

SUBMITTED TO: Mr. SANJAY SHARMA

DATE OF SUBMITTION: 11DEC, 2013

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ABSTRACT:
Abrasive water jet (AJM) cutting is one of the most recently development
manufacturing technology. It is superior to many other cutting techniques in
processing various hard materials. Particularly in processing difficult to cut
materials. This technology is being increasing used in various industries.
However its cutting capability in terms of depth of jet penetration and kerfs
quality is the major obstruction limiting its further application. More work is
required to fully understand the cutting process and cutting mechanism and
to optimizing cutting performance.
This report presents a comprehensive study on the nozzle technique aiming at
increasing the cutting performance in AWJ machining. In order to understand
the current state and development in AWJ cutting, an extensive literature
review is carried out.

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LIST OF TABLES AND GRAFS:

1: EFFECT OF PRESSURE ON THE DEPTH OF CUT
2: SELECTION OF MATERIAL FOR THE NOZZLES OF AWJM.
3: RATIO BETWEEN KINETIC ENERGY STORED IN A PARTICAL DURING
TRASLATION MOTION

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LIST OF FIGURES
1: MACHINED USING WATER JET
1. ALUMINUM
2. COMPOSITE MATERIALS

2: EFFECTS OF PROCESS PARAMETERS ON SURFACE ROUGHNESS FOR CAST IRON.

3: QUALITY VARIATION OF SURFACE ACCORDING TO CHANGE IN PARAMETERS.
4: ENERGY BLOCK DIAGRAM OF ABRASIVE WATER JET MACHINING.
5: SCHEMATIC SET-UP OF AWJM.
6: SCHEMATIC SET-UP OF INTENSIFIER.
7: ACCELERATION MECHANISM
1. PHASE DIAGRAM
2. FRAGMENTATION OF NOZZLE TIP
8: NOZZLE WEAR
9: MIXING CHAMBER
10: CHASES
11: TYPES OF CATCHES
12: PHOTOGRAPHIC VIEW OF KERFS GENERATED BY AWJM.
13. LONGITUDINAL SECTION OF KERFS
14: CRYOGENIC ABRASIVE JET MACHINING.

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Table of Contents
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.

INTRODUCTION
ABRASIVE WATER JET MACHINING
TYPES OF AWJM
BENEFITS AND APPLICATION
CUT GEOMETRY
CUT PROFILE
FACTORS AFFECTING CUT GEOMETRY
PARAMETER AFFECTING THE DEPTH OF CUT
ABRASIVE WATER JET MACHINE
NOZZLE
ACCELERATING MECHANISM
FRAGMENTATION OF NOZZLE
PREVENTION OF NOZZLE FROM WEAR
CATCHES
CONCLUSION AND DISCUSSION
NEW DEVELOPMENTS

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INTRODUCTION:The water jet cutter is a tribological tool used in a variety of industries. These industries include:
Manufacturing (machining, cleaning, and surface preparation), mining and excavation, logging,
Food preparation, medical, and agriculture. The tool works by providing a high pressure stream
of fluid to a material in order to remove particles in the cutting path. Typically the fluid used
consists of water with an abrasive agent contained within. This process is very similar to natural
erosion, just as a moving river carrying sand particles erodes away at its riverbed. However, the
water jet cutting process occurs at a much faster rate at much higher pressures.
The versatility of application and speed of the cutting has made this tool very useful for the vast
multitude of industries that it is used in. Water jet technology is not only limited to cutting
materials but can be used to treat surfaces. The use of this tool can be traced back all the way
to the 1800's when this tool was used for hydraulic gold mining in California.
Abrasive water jet machining is a relatively new machining technique it use the impact of
abrasive material with water to erode the work piece material. AWJM is a non-conventional
machining process where material is removed by impact erosion of high pressure high velocity
of water and entrained high velocity of grit abrasives on a work piece. The water afterwards
carries both the spent abrasive and the eroded material solid tool to cut the material usually by
a shearing process. It is a well-established non-traditional machining process used for cutting
difficult-to machine materials. It is a machining process with no heat generation and the
machined surface is virtually without any heat affected zone or residual stress. This technology
is less sensitive to material properties and has high machining versatility and high flexibility. The
major drawback of this process is, it generate loud noise and a messy working environment.
Water jet cutting technology is the only possibility on the horizon for high automation in high
performance cutting of practically all materials. The main advantage of the technology
compared to other cutting processes is in the cold cutting process.
This is utilized where cut - free, metal - cutting and thermal processing techniques provide
unsatisfactory results or fail for mechanical or physical reasons. Unlike with thermal processes,
all materials are cut without the effects of heat with the water jet. In addition to this, certain
materials, above all those with a greater thickness, will not allow for a qualitatively or
quantitatively effective cut using thermal processes. So materials like titanium, stainless steels,
copper, aluminum, etc., with greater thickness can be cut effectively using water jet. When
processing fiber composite materials or minerals, the coherent light beam fails completely,
where the water jet cutting technology plays a vital role.

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WATER JET MACHINING:

Water Jet cutting uses high pressure water to cut softer material like rubber and foam. When
abrasives are added to high pressure water the resulting abrasive jets cuts harder material like
steel, glass, titanium, hard rock, bullet proof glass, ceramics, etc. The high pressure water is
forced through a tiny orifice to concentrate high energy in a tiny area to cut. Water is pumped
at a sufficiently high pressure, 200-400 MPa (2000-4000 bar) using intensifier technology. An
intensifier works on the simple principle of pressure amplification using hydraulic cylinders of
different cross-sections. When water at such pressure is issued through a suitable orifice
(generally of 0.2- 0.4 mm dia), the potential energy of water is converted into kinetic energy,
yielding a high velocity jet (1000 m/s). Such high velocity water jet can machine thin sheets/foils
of aluminum, leather, textile, frozen food etc. Textiles, elastomeres, fibrous materials, thinner
plastics, foodstuffs, paper, thermoplastics, etc., are cut at a flow velocity of up to 200 meters
per minute with a pure water jet.
Water jets can be classified by the following criteria:

Pressure
Low pressure water jets (p < 150 MPa);
High pressure water jets (150 MPa <p< 550 MPa)

Continuity
Continuously water jets;
Discontinuously water jets: single impact jets, multiple impact jets

Number of phases
Single phase jets (only water);
Two phases jets (water + additives);
Three phases jets (water + abrasive particles + air);

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WATER JET MACHINING IS OF TWO TYPES:

1. PURE WATER JET MACHINING
2. ABRESIVE WATER JET MACHINING

Pure water jet machining:

In pure WJM, commercially pure water (tap water) is used for machining purpose. However as
the high velocity water jet is discharged from the orifice, the jet tends to entrain atmospheric
air and flares out decreasing its cutting ability. Hence, quite often stabilizers (long chain
polymers) that hinder the fragmentation of water jet are added to the water.

Abrasive water jet machining:

In AWJM, abrasive particles like sand (SiO ), glass beads are added to the water jet to enhance
2

its cutting ability by many folds. AWJ are mainly of two types entrained and suspended type
as mentioned earlier. In entrained type AWJM, the abrasive particles are allowed to entrain in
water jet to form abrasive water jet with significant velocity of 800 m/s. Such high velocity
abrasive jet can machine almost any material.

Benefits of Abrasive Jet Cutting:

Abrasive water jet offers many advantages not found in other cutting techniques.
a. No heat affected zone (HAZ)
b. Low contact force of cutting stream.
c. No distortion and warping
d. Burr-free
e. Can cut any material and thickness
f. Near net shape cutting eliminates secondary operations.
g. Can achieve high accuracys of up to +/- 0.001.
h. Material thickness of 0.002 to 12 can be cut.
i. Small kerf width allows for tight nesting and optimal material usage.
j. Flexibility

Application:
Abrasive water jet has the ability to cut almost all materials and thicknesses. Most uses are for
cutting of specialty materials such as stainless steel and aluminum. Its flexibility makes it useful
for all applications, but of course some uses are better than others. The following is a list of
applications where water jet is the best approach:
Application
Paint removal
Cleaning
Cutting soft materials

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Cutting frozen meat

Textile, Leather industry
Penning
Cutting
Pocket Milling
Drilling
Turning
Nuclear Plant Dismantling

Most Commonly Cut Materials

Materials that are reflective, conductive, heat resisting, or heat sensitive are ideal candidates
for abrasive water jet cutting. As the material thickness increases AWJ becomes the preferred
cutting technique, especially where accuracy must be maintained. Heat sensitive and heat
resisting materials such as stainless steel, alloy steel, titanium, inconel and hastelloy can be
cut with no material effects. Some distortion may occur due to the residual stresses already
present in the material. In thicker materials (over ) the edge finish and cut accuracy are
superior to heat cutting methods. There is no burr or dross that may require secondary
operations. Conductive materials such as aluminum and copper also cut well. AWJ is the
superior cutting method for aluminum because of its high cut speed. Since AWJ is a
mechanical cutting process, materials of low hardness and density cut faster.
Reflective materials such as polished stainless steel and polished brass are cut without
discoloration along the cut. There may be slight frosting along the cut. This is usually not
significant enough to require masking.
Hard plastics are also good candidates for AWJ. Polycarbonate (Lexan) is an excellent cutting
application since it can be cut without edge discoloration, as caused by laser. Acrylic
(Plexiglas) can be cut but it is prone to chipping during piercing. Soft plastics, foams and
rubbers can be cut with water jet, with no abrasive in the stream. Other materials that are
brittle such as stone, ceramic and glass can be cut. Piercing may cause chipping which can be
alleviated by piercing at reduced pressure.
Generally materials which can be process by this method:
Steels
Non-ferrous alloys
Ti alloys, Ni- alloys
Polymers
Honeycombs
Metal Matrix Composite
Ceramic Matrix Composite
Concrete
Stone Granite
Wood
Reinforced plastics

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Metal Polymer Laminates

Glass Fiber Metal Laminates
Note that conventional applications such as sheet metal and low accuracy mild steel cutting are
can be done with quality results but, generally is too expensive compared to plasma, laser or
punching.

Aluminum Machined Using Water Jet

Composite Materials

Cut Geometry:
Abrasive water jet cuts have straight edges with a slight amount of taper. Kerfs width is controlled
by the orifice/nozzle combination. Cuts in thicker materials generally require larger combinations
with more abrasive usage. The kerfs width can be as small as 0.020 for thin materials and up to
0.055 in thick materials.
The minimum inside corner radius is controlled be the nozzle diameter and There for is 0.010 to
0.030. Inside corners may have digs on the bottom of the cut in thick materials. This is due to
the exit of the stream lagging behind the entrance side of the stream and can occur as the jet exits

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from corners. Reducing the feed rate or adding a radius of at least 0.5 can eliminate this in thick
materials. The abrasive jet can pierce or drill holes smaller than 0.060 diameter. Interrupted cuts
can be performed if the distance between the top and bottom layer is less than 1.5.

Cut Quality
Cut quality describes the kerfs edge and taper. The feed rate controls the amount of jet lag.
Cutting speed and edge quality are directly related. At high feed rates the jet has increased
curvature as it passes through the cut. Reduced cutting speeds can result in a good edge finish
of 125 micro inches, having a ground appearance and minimal taper. High feed rates for
separation cuts give striations through the full cut depth.
Surface roughness is one of the most important criteria, which help us determine how rough a
work piece material is machined. By analyzing the experimental data of the selected material, it
has been found that the optimum selection of the four basic parameters, i.e., water pressure,
abrasive mass flow rate, nozzle traverse speed and nozzle standoff distance are very important
on controlling the process outputs such as surface roughness. The effect of each of these
parameters is studied while keeping the other parameters considered in this study as constant.
The effects of process parameters on surface roughness are shown in fig. 2. The following
discussion uses the experimental data at the centre of the cut for each specimen and the
surface roughness is assessed based on the centre-line average Ra.

1 Effect of Water Pressure on Surface Roughness

The influence of water pressure on the surface roughness is shown in fig.2 (a). Jet pressure
plays an important role in surface finish. As the jet pressure increases, surface becomes
smoother. With increase in jet pressure, brittle abrasives break down into smaller ones. As a
result of reduction of size of the abrasives the surface becomes smoother. Again, due to
increase in jet pressure, the kinetic energy of the particles increases which results in smoother
machined surface.

2 Effect of Mass Flow Rate on Surface Roughness

It needs a large number of impacts per unit area under a certain pressure to overcome the
bonding strength of any material. With the increase in abrasive flow rate, surface roughness
decreases. This is because of more number of impacts and cutting edges available per unit area
with a higher abrasive flow rate. Abrasive flow rate determines the number of impacting
abrasive particles as well as total kinetic energy available Therefore, higher abrasive flow rate,
higher should be the cutting ability of the jet. But for higher abrasive flow rate, abrasives collide
among themselves and lose their kinetic energy. It is evident that the surface is smoother near
the jet entrance and gradually the surface roughness increases towards the jet exit. The effect
of abrasive mass flow rate on surface roughness is shown in fig. 2(b).

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Figure 2 Effects of process parameters on surface roughness for cast iron

3 Effect of Traverse Speed on Surface Roughness

Traverse speed didn't show a prominent influence on surface roughness. For decreasing of the
machining costs every user try to choose the feed rate of the cutting head as high as possible,
but increasing the traverse speed always causes increasing of inaccuracy and surface
roughness. But with increase in work feed rate the surface roughness increased.
This is due to the fact that as the work moves faster, less number of particles are available that
pass through a unit area. Therefore, less number of impacts and cutting edges are available per
unit area, which results a rougher surface. The relationship between the traverse speed and the
surface roughness is shown in fig. 2(c).

4 Effect of Standoff distance on Surface Roughness

Surface roughness increase with increase in standoff distance. This is shown in fig. 2(d).
Generally, higher standoff distance allows the jet to expand before impingement which may
increase vulnerability to external drag from the surrounding environment. Therefore, increase
in the standoff distance results an increased jet diameter as cutting is initiated and in turn,
reduces the kinetic energy of the jet at impingement. So surface roughness increase with
increase in standoff distance. It is desirable to have a lower standoff distance which may
produce a smoother surface due to increased kinetic energy. The machined surface is smoother
near the top of the surface and becomes rougher at greater depths from the top surface.

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Parameter affecting the depth of cut:

A: Abrasive water jet pressure:
It affects the abrasive particle velocity and can be varied up to 415 MPa maximum.

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Most common range used is 172Mpa to 241MPa, because of the bearing capability of hose
pipe.
Relationship between pressure and depth of cut is approximately linear.

B: Mass flow rate of abrasive:

Depth of cut is directly proportional to mass flow rate of abrasive.

C: Size and type of abrasive used:

Optimum value of abrasive size ranges from 100-150GFN.
Common abrasive used
Silicon carbide, garnet etc
Garnet: is a material from silica group which has 4 different types:

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Pyrope
Almanidine
Spessaratine
Grossular

Almanidine is used as a common abrasive material for abrasive water jet machining.

Critical pressure range:

it is the minimum pressure required for the initiation of a cut in any material even if the mass
flow rate of abrasives are improved or diameter of nozzle are improved cutting starts from this
vary pressure range only.
From the graph it is clear that a particular value from the pressure range is needed to initiate
any cut. Water flow rate is directly proportional to pressure^(1/2) and square of diameter
nozzle.

Machine
Any standard abrasive water jet machining (AWJM) system using entrained AWJM methodology
consists of following modules.

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Pump types
Fixed
Intensifier
Fixed Displacement Piston Pump.
This type of pump as used in some entry level machines uses a set of high speed pistons driven
directly by an electric motor to compress the water and generates the pressure. This type of
pump develops a cutting pressure of 1500 2000 bars which is adequate for an entry level
machine. It also has the advantage of being cheap.

Intensifier Pump
This type of pump uses hydraulic pressure developed by an electric motor driving a hydraulic
pump, which in turn drives a single piston backwards and forwards in a long slow stroke,
compressing the water and developing pressures up to 4100 bar. This is the most common type
of pump found on water jet machines.

The hydraulic power pack delivers the hydraulic oil to the intensifier at a pressure of p .
h

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The ratio of cross-section of the two cylinders in the intensifier is say

A

ratio

(A = A

large

/A

small

).

Thus, pressure amplification would take place at the small cylinder as follows.
p
Thus, if the hydraulic pressure is set as 100 bar and area ratio is 40,
p = 100 x 40 = 4000 bar.
w

By using direction control valve, the intensifier is driven by the hydraulic unit. The water
may be directly supplied to the small cylinder of the intensifier or it may be supplied through a
booster pump, which typically raises the water pressure to 11 bar before supplying it to the
intensifier. Sometimes water is softened or long chain polymers are added in additive unit.

Thus, as the intensifier works, it delivers high pressure water. As the larger piston changes
direction within the intensifier, there would be a drop in the delivery pressure. To counter such
drops, a thick cylinder is added to the delivery unit to accommodate water at high pressure.
This is called an accumulator which acts like a fly wheel of an engine and minimizes
fluctuation of water pressure.
High-pressure water is then fed through the flexible stainless steel pipes to the cutting head. It
is worth mentioning here that such pipes are to carry water at 4000 bar (400 MPa) with
flexibility incorporated in them with joints but without any leakage. Cutting head consists of
orifice, mixing chamber and focusing tube or insert where water jet is formed and mixed with
abrasive particles to form abrasive water jet.

NOZZLES:
They can be made up of synthetic sapphire or material which are harder and can withstand
erosive action of abrasive particles such as tungsten carbide and boron carbide. There are three
common nozzle material types used in water jet cleaning: steel, carbide, and sapphire. Each has
advantages in certain applications, while having real limitations in others. Jet quality produced
and life expectancy are both critical issues for industrial water blast nozzles.

NOZZLE MATERIAL:-

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They are generally of two types

Single jet
Multiple jets
A: Single jet:

They are entered from one side of nozzle water is supplied from central unit which is
mixed with abrasive.
They can be made smaller which is suitable for difficult locations.
If the flow of abrasive is checked off, the same nozzle can be serve as water jet
machining.
They are simple and easy to make at lower cost.

B: Multiple jets:

Water is supplied from one side way around the abrasive jet propulsion unit placed in
central of the unit.
Efficient mixing of particle is ensured.
They are difficult to manufacture and offer a high cost.
It is bigger in size hence not suitable for complicated region.

Acceleration process geometry

An important parameter in AWJ machining is the standoff distance between the focusing tube
and the work piece. From the machining point of view it would be useful to know the AWJ
structure and velocity conditions as function of the stand-off distance. Because of that and due
to the geometry of the AWJ it is appropriate to use a cylindrical coordinate system, with its
origin placed on the focusing tube exit point and the z axis aligned in the direction of the AWJ
as is shown on Figure .
Figure b shows the relevant geometry in the cutting head for simulating the abrasive particle
acceleration due to rebounds between the WJ and the cutting head components surface. The
acceleration mechanisms will be explained more in detail in the next section. Usually, the AWJ
is treated as an axial symmetric tool.
Actually there are three possibilities concerning the tool symmetry in the AWJ machining
process, which depends on the scale of observation. As mentioned before, the AWJ can be
treated as an axial symmetric tool and in this case the structure would depend on z and r
coordinate and would be independent on the coordinate in the above-defined cylindrical
coordinate system. The second possibility is that the AWJ is plane symmetric due to the
abrasive particle insertion from one side. At the end it is clear that the jet is unsymmetrical
because the abrasive particles are inserted in a discrete way. Nevertheless, if the AWJ structure

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and velocity profiles are observed in a certain time period, it can be treated as an axial
symmetrical problem.

Abrasive particle acceleration mechanisms

The abrasive particle acceleration process starts with the entrainment of the particles in the
mixing chamber trough the abrasive inlet. During the acceleration process a momentum
transfer from the high velocity WJ to abrasive particles, which have a negligible starting velocity
takes place. Mostly, the momentum transfer occurs in the focusing tube, which is characterized
by its inner diameter and length.

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Several facts indicate that the acceleration of abrasive particles is a result of rebounds between
the WJ and focusing tube surface. The rebounds on the high velocity water jet accelerate the
particles. During these rebounds the abrasive particles produce a local disturbance on the
water jet and there is a possibility that some particles break. By accelerating the abrasive
particles the water jet looses velocity because of momentum transfer. Allowing long
acceleration distances (long focusing tube) the velocity of abrasive particles would reach the
highest possible velocity (approximately up to 50% of the WJ velocity), but in this case energy
losses due to impact of particles on the focusing tube surface would drastically increase and the
resulting velocity would be too low to enable an efficient work piece material removal process.
During the rebounds of particles on the focusing tube surface, there is some deceleration. Also
a fragmentation
of abrasive particles can occur accompanied by some degree of erosion on the focusing tube
surface. Taking into account all the rebounds of abrasive particles from both, the WJ and
focusing tube surface, in the sum there is acceleration in the direction of the water jet flow. It
can be also concluded, that the actual acceleration process begins in the conical part at the top
of the focusing tube, where the abrasive particles are accumulated as shown on Figure 6 a).
This could explain why from cutting experiences the AWJ doesnt seem to be unsymmetrical
even if the abrasive particles are inserted by one side. Figure 6 b) shows a supposed trajectory
of an abrasive particles, which is accelerated at each rebound from the WJ and decelerated at
each rebound from the focusing tube. On the same picture it can be seen how the WJ loses
some of its velocity after each rebound. At the end of the acceleration process the WJ is
decelerated and the abrasive particles have a velocity in the same direction as the WJ.

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Air stream influence on the abrasive particles

Acceleration process
During the AWJ formation process, an air flow is established in the cutting head. The general
opinion is that this flow of air is a consequence of the Venturi effect produced by the high
speed WJ passing through the mixing chamber as shown on Figure 7 a). Actually there isnt a
Venturi principle, because the air is actually dragged by the WJ. The first impression is that the
air flow in the cutting head breaks up the WJ and therefore it should be minimized. On the
other hand, the air, which is sucked through the abrasive inlet, facilitates the entrainment of
abrasive particles in the mixing chamber.
Probably it plays an important role, especially in the initial phase of acceleration.

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On Figure 7 b) and c) the velocity profile of the air flow in the acceleration gap between the WJ
and focusing tube is shown. It can be, that the pressure in the mixing chamber is so low, that a
back flow of air through the focusing tube is established as illustrated on Figure 7 b). The flow
through the focusing tube is probably influenced by the interaction with work piece. This can
explain why an optimal stand-off distance at which the machining performance is the best
exists. Below this optimal standoff distance it could happen that the cutting head is jammed
because of a back flow up to the focusing tube.

Abrasive particles rotation

During each rebound from both, the water jet and the focusing tube surface an abrasive
particle acquires some rotation in the same direction. As already mentioned in the literature
preview, Swanson et al. [30] observed from their measurements with the two coils method that

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abrasive particles can acquire a rotational velocity from few thousand up to five million rpms.
Beside the rotation gained during rebounds from the WJ and focusing tube, some of the
particle rotation can be attributed to the nonsymmetrical air flow in the acceleration gap, which
reaches the highest velocity near the WJ and the smallest or even a backflow near the focusing
tube surface. In the first case the friction force between the abrasive particles and the WJ (or
the focusing tube) produce a momentum around the particles gravity center point, what results
in an increase of the particle rotation as shown on Figure 8 a). A similar mechanism takes place
due to the force of the air stream acting on the particle surface, which is not aligned with the
gravity center point as shown on Figure 8 b).

In this work we didnt specify the size of the used abrasive. From their experimental results and
assuming that the particles are spherical, we calculated the kinetic energy stored in translation
and rotation of abrasive particles for different particle diameters as shown on Figure 9.

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The ratio between kinetic energy stored in particle translation and in particle rotation is just an
approximation, but the interesting thing is, that in the case of particles with diameter of 300
m, a quarter of the total kinetic energy is stored in the rotation of abrasive particles. Since the
work piece material removal process is based on erosion of abrasive particles, their rotation has
to be taken into account even if doesnt seems to be very relevant.

Velocity, masses and energy distributions across the AWJ

Knowing the velocity and mass distribution profiles would enable us to calculate the energy
profile of the AWJ, which, beside the work piece material properties, is the most important
input parameter to modeling the material removal process. The energy distribution depends on
the velocity profiles and mass distribution of each phase across the AWJ. Most of the kinetic
energy is transported by the high velocity abrasive particles and the WJ. Even if the air flow
reaches supersonic velocities, this phase of the AWJ transports just a small amount of the total
kinetic energy due to the low density of air. In WJ cutting the kinetic energy of the water is high
enough to remove the work piece material, but in order to machine harder materials; a higher
concentration of kinetic energy has to be available. This energy can be stored in abrasive
particles due to their higher density comparing to the water density. The available energy in the
time interval tj, which is associated to an abrasive particle insertion, is distributed to the kinetic
energy of the WJ, which is defined by Equation 3 and to the kinetic energy of the abrasive
particles defined by Equation 4

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Equation 4 states, that the kinetic energy of abrasive particles is composed by the energy
stored in particle translation and energy stored in particle rotation. In
Equations 3 and 4 mWJ,j is the mass of the part of WJ associated to the time interval tj,vWJ,j
the average velocity of the WJ, while vAP,j is the velocity, AP,j the rotational velocity and JAP,j
the inertial momentum of the observed abrasive particle.
By knowing just the amount of the kinetic energy the AWJ is not fully defined. An important
attribute for the work piece material removal process is the distribution of energy across the
AWJ as well. In this way the AWJ would be fully defined quantitatively and qualitatively.

Abrasive particle fragmentation mechanisms

Generally, three mechanisms of abrasive particle fragmentation were observed in the cutting
head: the impacts of particles with the high velocity water jet, the impact with the focusing
tube wall and the impacts between particles. According to our experiences, we conclude that
the particle fragmentation is very unlikely to occur due to the impact between particles. This
can be proved using a simple abrasive particles trajectory model. Even when increasing the
abrasive mass flow the possibility that the trajectories of two or more particles intersect is
negligible. Also the relative velocity between particles during the acceleration process is
relatively low to allow fragmentation.
It is reasonable to believe that at the beginning of the acceleration process most of the abrasive
fragmentation process takes place at rebounds on the WJ because the velocity difference at
this stage is the highest. When the abrasive particles accelerate in the focusing tube the
velocity difference between the particles and the WJ is getting smaller and the particles are
fragmented due to the impacts against the focusing tube. On the other hand it can be
observed, that the highest rate of focusing tube wear takes place at the inlet part as is shown
on Figure 10, what would suggest that the particle fragmentation is more frequent at the top
and not at the bottom of the focusing tube.

An explanation to why the focusing tube is more eroded at the top is in the frequency of the
rebounds from the focusing tube surface. At the top of the focusing surface a higher number of
rebounds due to small abrasive particles velocities take place. Another possible reason of a

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higher wear on the top of the focusing tube is that at this stage the abrasive particles have
more sharp edges, what implies a higher erosive capability.

Prevention of Nozzle Wear in Abrasive Water Suspension Jets (AWSJ)

Using Porous Lubricated Nozzles:
A novel method for preventing nozzle wears in abrasive water jets. It consists of using a porous
nozzle, surrounded by a reservoir containing high-viscosity lubricant, which is exposed to the
same driving pressure as the flow in the nozzle. The pressure difference across the porous
medium, generated due to the high-speed flow in the nozzle, continuously forces lubricant
through it. The resulting thin oil film forming on the walls of the nozzle protects the walls from
the impact and shear caused by the abrasive particles.

A Sketch illustrating the principles of the method for preventing nozzle wear

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Nozzle choice depends on three factors:

Whether you are cutting with water only i.e. soft materials like Foam, rubber,
cardboard, foodstuffs, leather or textiles, or water and abrasive i.e. hard materials like
metal alloys, glass, ceramics, stone, laminates or Granite.
Quality and speed of cut required.
Volume of cutting.
In the case of a fixed displacement pump, there is only one choice of nozzle as the volume of
water delivered is constant and the pressure delivery is influenced by the orifice diameter.
Therefore the nozzle diameter and the focusing tube diameter must be chosen so that the
pump delivers the required cutting pressure.
With an intensifier pump the orifice diameter and the pressure of the water determine the
volume of water being used. With pure water cutting the cutting head design is very simple as
you can see in the diagram above. For abrasive water jet cutting the high velocity water jet
creates a vacuum in the cutting head and if abrasive is required, the vacuum draws the abrasive
material into the mixing chamber where it is accelerated by the water jet and then aligned with
the water in the focusing tube. An abrasive water jet must be perfectly formed to provide the
optimal cutting capacity. The shape of the nozzle must allow a perfect, thin jet of water to be
formed. The cutting head must be designed to allow even mixing of the abrasive with the water
jet and the focusing tube must be of sufficient length to accelerate and align the abrasive
particles. Increasing the diameter of the orifice greatly increases the cutting power of a water
jet, the maximum nozzle size being limited by the capacity of the pump. Typically for a 50hp
intensifier pump, the optimum orifice size is 0.35mm, with a 1.1mm focusing tube, which gives
optimum cutting power and cutting speed.

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NOZZLS
The potential or pressure head of the water is converted into velocity head by allowing the
high-pressure water to issue through an orifice of small diameter (0.2 0.4 mm). The velocity of
the water jet thus formed can be estimated, assuming no losses as
vwj = (2pw / w)1/2
Using Bernoullis equation where, pw is the water pressure and w is the density of water.
The orifices are typically made of sapphire. In commercial machines, the life of the sapphire
orifice is typically around 100 150 hours. In WJM this high velocity water jet is used for the
required application where as in AWJM it is directed into the mixing chamber. The mixing
chamber has a typical dimension of inner diameter 6 mm and a length of 10 mm. As the high
velocity water is issued from the orifice into the mixing chamber, low pressure (vacuum) is

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created within the mixing chamber. Metered abrasive particles are introduced into the mixing
chamber through a port.
The abrasive particles are metered using different techniques like vibratory feeder or toothed
belt feeder. The reader may consult standard literature on transportation of powders.

Mixing
Fig. schematically shows the mixing process. Mixing means gradual entrainment of abrasive
particles within the water jet and finally the abrasive water jet comes out of the focusing tube
or the nozzle.
During mixing process, the abrasive particles are gradually accelerated due to transfer of
momentum from the water phase to abrasive phase and when the jet finally leaves the focusing
tube, both phases, water and abrasive, are assumed to be at same velocity. The mixing
chamber, as shown in Fig. 7 and Fig. 8, is immediately followed by the focusing tube or the
inserts. The focusing tube is generally made of tungsten carbide (powder metallurgy product)
having an inner diameter of 0.8 to 1.6 mm and a length of 50 to 80 mm. Tungsten carbide is
used for its abrasive resistance. Abrasive particles during mixing try to enter the jet, but they
are reflected away due to interplay of buoyancy and drag force. They go on interacting with the
jet and the inner walls of the mixing tube, until they are accelerated using the momentum of
the water jet.

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Suspension Jet
In entrained AWJM, the abrasive water jet, which finally comes from the focusing tube or
nozzle, can be used to machine different materials.
In suspension AWJM the abrasive water jet is formed quite differently. There are three
different types of suspension AWJ formed by direct, indirect and Bypass pumping method.

In suspension AWJM, preformed mixture of water and abrasive particles is pumped to a

sufficiently high pressure and store in pressure vessel. Then the premixed high-pressure water
and abrasive is allowed to discharge from a nozzle to form abrasive water jet.

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Abrasive
The abrasive used in water jet cutting is typically a Garnet type of 80 up to 120 microns in
diameter. The quality of this abrasive has a great influence on the cutting power of the water
jet. The abrasive must have a high cutting efficiency, but cause low wear on the focusing tube
and mixing chamber, create very little dust and be environmentally friendly.
The following factors must be considered in determining a suitable abrasive: The grain of the abrasive must be less than half the focusing tube diameter
The hardness of the abrasive has a direct effect on the cutting power of the water jet
The dust content of the abrasive must be low or it creates sludge in the waste water
Quality and repeatability of the cutting results

Catcher
Once the abrasive jet has been used for machining, they may have sufficiently high level of
energy depending on the type of application. Such high-energy abrasive water jet needs to be
contained before they can damage any part of the machine or operators. Catcher is used to
absorb the residual energy of the AWJ and dissipate the same. Shows three different types of
catcher water basin type, submerged steel balls and TiB plate type.
2

They are deployed for

Reduce sound.
Avoid over cutting.

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Moreover the catcher can be of pocket type or line type. In pocket type, the catcher basin
travels along the jet. In line type, the catcher basin only travels along one axis of the CNC table
and its length covers the width of the other axis of the CNC table.

Mechanism of material removal

The general domain of parameters in entrained type AWJ machining system is given below:
Orifice Sapphires 0.1 to 0.3 mm
Focussing Tube WC 0.8 to 2.4 mm
Pressure 2500 to 4000 bar
Abrasive garnet and olivine - #125 to #60
Abrasive flow - 0.1 to 1.0 Kg/min
Standoff distance 1 to 2 mm
o

Machine Impact Angle 60 to 90

Traverse Speed 100 mm/min to 5 m/min
Depth of Cut 1 mm to 250 mm

Mechanism of material removal in machining with water jet and abrasive water jet is rather
complex. In AWJM of ductile materials, material is mainly removed by low angle impact by
abrasive particles leading to ploughing and micro cutting. Further at higher angle of impact, the
material removal involves plastic failure of the material at the sight of impact. In case of AWJM
of brittle materials, other than the above two models, material would be removed due to crack
initiation and propagation because of brittle failure of the material. In water jet machining, the
material removal rate may be assumed to be proportional to the power of the water jet.

The proportionality constant u is the specific energy requirement and would be a property of
the work material.

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Fig. 10, Fig. 11, Fig. 12 and Fig. 13 show the cut generated by an AWJM in different sections. It is
called kerfs.

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The top of the kerfs is wider than the bottom of the kerfs. Generally the top width of the kerfs
is equal to the diameter of the AWJ. Once again, diameter of the AWJ is equal to the diameter
of the focusing tube or the insert if the stand-off distance is around 1 to 5mm. The taper angle
of the kerfs can be reduced by increasing the cutting ability of the AWJ. Fig. 12 shows the
longitudinal section of the kerfs. It may be observed that the surface quality at the top of the
kerfs is rather good compared to the bottom part. At the bottom there is repeated curved line
formation. At the top of the kerfs, the material removal is by low angle impact of the abrasive
particle; whereas at the bottom of the kerfs it is by plastic failure. Striation formation occurs
due to repeated plastic failure.
Fig. 13 shows the exit side of the kerfs. Though all three of them were machined with the same
AWJ diameter, their widths are different due to tapering of the kerfs. Further, severe burr
formation can be observed at the exit side of the kerfs.
Thus, in WJM and AWJM the following are the important product quality parameters.
Striation formation
Surface finish of the kerfs
tapering of the kerfs
Burr formation on the exit side of the kerfs

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CONCLUSIONS AND DISCUSSION

The AWJ formation process is a complex process, where several effects have to be taken into
account. An important aspect is the abrasive particle fragmentation in the cutting head. The
shape and size of particles change during their acceleration, what is important information for
the modeling of the work piece removal process. The total energy available from the water at
high pressure is distributed on the kinetic energy of the WJ, abrasive particles, and air flow as
shown on Figure 14. A part of this energy is dissipated on abrasive particle fragmentation,
cutting head erosion and other types of losses. An important point is the abrasive particles
kinetic energy, which is stored in translation and rotation. The energy is actually higher than the
one considering just the particle velocity and mass.

Figure 14. Estimated distribution of the available energy during the AWJ
Formation process.
Better understand the physics of the process. During these investigations we made a simple
model of the particle acceleration process based on the rebounds between the WJ and cutting
head components surface. By simulating the acceleration of each abrasive particle in a defined
time, their velocities and mass distribution can be calculated at a given stand-off distance. For
this purpose we made a very simple analytical model based on abrasive particle rebound
between the WJ and the focusing tube. Even if this model doesnt take into account all the
mechanisms and influences described in this contribution, the first results are encouraging.
From this simulations it was observed, that a divergent instead of a cylindrical focusing tube as
showed on Figure 12 would make the AWJ more coherent. On the other hand the final velocity
of abrasive particles would be smaller due to a smaller number of rebounds. So far this is just
an assumption, which should be experimentally verified in the near future.

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Another interesting fact is, that the velocity of abrasive particles should be at least half the
velocity of the WJ in order to have the same kinetic energy concentration, because the density
of abrasive is about four times the density of water. If the velocity of abrasive particles is
smaller the performance of such an AWJ isnt much better than a performance of a plain WJ,
assuming that the energy concentration is a relevant attribute in the work piece material
removal process. Nevertheless, it has to be stressed that part of the energy is stored in particle
rotation, which should be further analyzed.
To conclude it can be stated that more experiments have to be carried out and more
mechanisms and effects have to be integrated in the analytical models in order to better
understand the physics of the AWJ formation process. Once that this will be achieved, the
possibilities to optimize the cutting head components and choosing the proper parameters to
increase the machining performance will drastically increase.

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Environmental issues and future

Nowadays, every manufacturing process is being re-evaluated in terms of its impact on the
environment. For example, use of conventional coolants in machining and grinding is being
looked upon critically from the point of view of its impact on environment. The environmental
issues relevant to AWJM are,
Water recycling
spent water disposal
Chip recovery
Abrasive recovery and reuse
Environmental issues and concerns have lead the researchers to use such mediums and
abrasives that do not require disposal, recycling or lead to pollution. Work is going on in the
area of high-pressure cryogenic jet machining (Fig. 16) where liquid nitrogen replaces the water
phase and dry ice crystals (solid CO crystals) replace the abrasive
2

Phase leading to no need of disposal or waste generation. The removed work material in the
form of microchips can be collected much easily reducing the chances of environmental
degradation.

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REFERENCES
[1] Faber K. and H. Oweinah: Influence of Process Parameters on Blasting Performance with the
Abrasive-jet. In. Saunders D. (editor), Jet Cutting Technology Proceedings of 10th International
Symposium, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 31October 2 November 1990, pages 365-382,
Elsevier Science Publishers Ltd, London, 1991.
[2] Hoogstrate A. M. and C. A. van Luttervelt: Opportunities in Abrasive Water-Jet Machining.
Annals of the CIRP, Vol. 46/2, pages 697-714, 1997.
[3] Momber A. W. and, R. Kovacevic. Principles of Abrasive Water Jet Machining. SpringerVerlag, London, 1998.
[4] Tan D. K. M.: A Model for the Surface Finish in Abrasive-Waterjet Cutting. In. Saunders D.
(editor), Jet Cutting Technology Proceedings of 8th International Symposium, Durham, UK, 911 September 1986, pages 309-313, BHRA Fluid Engineering, 1986.

*5+ Siores E., Wong W C K., Chen L., Wager J G. Enhancing abrasive waterjet cutting of ceramics
by head oscillation techniques. Ann CIRP, 45*1+: pp 215-218, 1996.
*6+ Wang J. Abrasive Waterjet Machining of Engineering Materials. Uetikon-Zuerich
[Swizerland]: Trans Tech Publications, 2003.
[7] Wang J, Wong W C K. "A study of water jet cutting of metallic coated sheet steels".
International Journal of Mach. Tools Manufacturing, 39: pp 855-870, 1999.
[8] Wang J. Predictive depth of jet penetration models for abrasive water jet cutting of
alumina ceramics. International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 49: pp 306316,
2007.

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