Energy transfer during the mixing of air and solid particles into a high-speed waterjet: an impact-force study

The paper discusses the energy-transformation efficiency during the formati on of high-speed waterjets, and during the mixing of solid particles and ai r into high-speed waterjets with velocities up to 850 m/s. The measurements are basically impact-force measurements on high-speed waterjets and on hig h-speed three-phase slurries. In detail, the energy transfer during high-sp eed waterjet formation, air mixing-and-acceleration, solid particle mixing- and-acceleration, and during abrasive waterjet (AWJ) formation have been an alysed. The measurements are performed by using a piezoelectric dynamometer . It is found that this technique can be applied successfully to analyse th e jet and slurry formation processes in AWJ systems. The results are compar ed with results obtained from laser-based jet velocity measurements. (C) 20 01 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.