Finite element analysis of multi-particle impact on erosion in abrasive water jet machining of titanium alloy

Abrasive water jets (AWJs) are finding growing applications for machining a wide range of difficult-to-machine materials such as titanium alloys, stainless steel, metal matrix and fibre reinforced composites, etc. Current applications of AWJs include machining of Titanium alloys for aircraft components and bio-medical implants to removal of aircraft engine coatings. This paper presents the application of an elasto-plastic model based explicit finite element analysis (FEA) to model the erosion behaviour in abrasive water jet machining (AWJM). The novelty of this work includes FE modelling of the effect of multiple (twenty) particle impact on erosion of Grade 5 Titanium alloy (Ti-6Al-4V). The influence of abrasive particle impact angle and velocity on the crater sphericity and depth, and erosion rate has been investigated. The FE model has been validated for stainless steel and yields largely improved results. Further, the same FEA approach has been extended to model the multi-particle impact erosion behaviour of Titanium alloy.