Abstract
Aluminum, known for its low density and its ability to resist corrosion through passivation, is vitally important to the aerospace industry, transportation, and building industries. The most common problem when machining titanium using traditional metal cutting processes is that tools rapidly wear out and need to be replaced since the variation of chip thickness, high heat stress, high-pressure loads, spring back, and residual stress result in higher tool wear and worse machined surface integrity. Thus, a technique that allows high precision machining of titanium that preserves the integrity of the machined material, reduces tool wear or even eliminates tooling entirely is an important advance. This study examines the ability to machine Al 6061-T6 and Ti-6Al-4V using a pulsed water jet by simulation using ABAQUS Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH). The aluminum results showed that between the three diameters the 0.4572 mm orifice is a better choice based upon the percent increase from the orifice diameter; but based off of the kerf, the 0.3556 mm is the better choice. The results show that the 621 MPa has the highest MRR for Al 6061-T6, 232.1 mm3/s. For the four pressure simulations for the titanium, the 138 MPa pressure has the smoothest surface. Even though the volume removed decreased as the pressures increased for the titanium, the MRR increased due to the shorter machining times with 621 MPa pressure having the second highest MRR, 170.051 mm3/s. The results show that overall the 621 MPa is the best choice from the parameters chosen for machining Al 6061-T6 and Ti-6Al-4V.
