Research article

Analysis and optimization of mass percentage of zycoprint polymer and abrasives in achieving stability of suspension mixture in abrasive water jet machining

Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Manipal Institute of Technology, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal 576104, Karnataka, India

^* e-mail: vijay.gs@manipal.edu
^** e-mail: cr.kamath@manipal.edu

Received: 2 November 2022
Accepted: 26 March 2023

Abstract

The suspension parameters are vital in the suspension-type abrasive water jet (AWJ) machining of several engineering materials, more so in difficult-to-cut materials, because it significantly influences the suspension stability and sedimentation behaviour of the suspension mixture and abrasive particle acceleration into the AWJs. The suspension stability and abrasive particle acceleration of the suspension-type AWJs are improved by using polymer additives. Hence, it is necessary to study the effect of suspension parameters (abrasive and polymer concentrations) on suspension stability. In this direction, the novel work reported in the paper analyses the stability of suspension by varying the mass percentage of abrasives (garnet and aluminum oxide (Al₂O₃)) (ω_a) and mass percentage of the zycoprint polymer (ω_p) in water by considering the Taguchi L₉ Orthogonal array (OA). The linear regression (LR) models for the percentage of suspension volume with garnet (V_s^G) and the percentage of suspension volume with Al₂O₃ (V_s^A), are developed. The JAYA algorithm is used to find the optimal combination of the suspension parameters, and its results are in close agreement with the findings from the LR results. The optimum setting of the suspension parameters for both, V_s^G and V_s^A, is 3% of ω_a and 0.80% of ω_p.