Effect of process parameter on the kerf geometry in abrasive water jet milling

This research work introduces a model to predict the kerf profile in abrasive water jet slot milling in aluminium 7075-T651. The experimentation allowed modelling the maximum cutting depth and the width at the half of maximum depth in terms of four process parameters: pressure, abrasive mass flow rate, stand-off distance, and traverse feed rate. It is shown that the introduction of the maximum depth and the width at the half of maximum depth in a Gaussian function is suitable to describe the kerf profile. The definition of an equivalent traverse feed rate at every instant along the jet trajectory introduces the effect of the jet acceleration in the model. Thus, the model is capable of predicting the kerf profile at constant traverse feed rate and at variable traverse feed rate due to direction changing trajectories. The variations of cutting depth along a slot are also studied in order to avoid the cutting parameters combinations which lead to low repetitiveness conditions and then irregular milling surfaces.