TEST PARAMETER ANALYSIS IN ABRASIVE WATER-JET CUTTING OF ROCKLIKE MATERIALS

This paper contains investigations on the behavior of five artificial rocklike materials subjected to abrasive water jet cutting. The influe nce of the test parameters, i.e. applied pump pressure, traverse rate and abrasive mass flow rate was investigated, as well as the influence of several material parameters, e.g. compressive strength, Young's mo dulus, absorbed fracture energy and crack velocity. For the test param eters, it is found that two sets of critical parameters exist. First, there are minimum threshold values which must be exceeded to initiate the material destruction process. Second, critical values for the test parameters exist which should not be exceeded in order to ensure an e ffective cutting process. Based on statistical calculations it is foun d that the crack velocities of the materials have the most significant effect on the cutting process. The crack velocity of the material inf luences the depth of the cut, specific energy, and threshold parameter s of the cutting process. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.