An erosion-based model for abrasive waterjet turning of ductile materials

This paper presents an attempt to model the abrasive waterjet (AWJ) turning process considering material removal from the circumference of a rotating cylindrical specimen. The methodology involves the use of Finnie's theory of erosion to estimate the volume of material removed by the impacting abrasive particles. The proposed model considers the impact of jet at an angle to the workpiece surface to account for the curvature of the workpiece. Unlike earlier works, this model considers the continuous change in local impact angle caused by the change in workpiece diameter. The flow stress of the workpiece material is determined using a novel experiment involving the same abrasive and workpiece materials. The adequacy of the proposed model is examined through AWJ turning tests under various process parameter combinations. The final diameters predicted by the model are found to be in good agreement with the experimental results. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.