ANALYSIS OF TAPER ANGLE IN NOZZLE IN ABRASIVE FLUID JET MACHINING USING CFD

Abrasive fluid jet machining is one of the most recently developed nontraditional manufacturing technologies. In Abrasive fluid jet machining the abrasives are premixed with a suspended liquid to form slurry. The general nature of flow through the abrasive fluid jet machining, results in rapid wear of the nozzle which degrades the cutting performance. Nozzle replacement costs play a significant role in the economics of the machining process and improvements in its wear characteristics, are critical for the growth of such machining technology. The objective of the project is to analyze the effect of inlet operating pressure on wall shear and exit kinetic energy of the flow medium. The analysis would be carried out by using different fluids with abrasive particles and by changing the physical dimensions of the nozzle so as to obtain optimized process parameters for effective machining. The two phase flow analysis is carried by using a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) tool CFX. The availability of optimized process parameters of abrasive fluid jet machining is limited to water and experimental test can be cost prohibitive. In this case CFD analysis would provide better results.