Discrete elements model of an abrasive water-jet through the focal canon to the work-piece

摘要

Abrasive water-jet manufacturing process can shape a lot of materials ranging from metals to glasses. It has a lot of advantages, as its low cutting forces, but remains quite difficult to control. Indeed, the process is leaded by the abrasive particle trajectories which depends on the water static pressure and many other parameters. The impact pressure on the work-piece is commonly modeled by a two Gaussian fit sum which are representative of the particles velocity distribution and the granulometry respectively. Today no studies based on discrete elements take into account the mixing chamber and the focal canon which are the two main steps of the abrasive water-jet tool constitution. In this preliminary work we propose to model the flow through the focal canon until the target impact by an original numeric granular approach. The Non-Smooth Contact Dynamics is an efficient method on a large range of simulation domains. In our case, we consider the water phase and the abrasive phase as two collections of distinct poly-disperse elements. The masses are corrected and the contact interaction laws are adjusted to account for an equivalent fluid which similar mechanical properties. These two phases are mixed in a chamber and focalised through the canon, knowing water static pressure and abrasive mass rate. After the canon end the abrasive water-jet evolves in air and thus decelerates by friction. The tool-fluid adapts its geometric configuration from this kinetic energy decrease and impacts a target plane located at a known distance from the canon. Such a model is built on some classic process parameters as the water static pressure, the abrasive mass rate or the work-piece vs. canon distance, but it also naturally takes into account finer mechanical parameters as the abrasive granulometry or friction dissipation. Simulations gives interesting results of impact pressure distribution on the target work-piece with dynamic data of all the collection particles. More generally, this work final aim is to link elemental particle damage studies with a macroscopic wear prediction law.