Experimental Investigations on Depth of Cut in Abrasive Waterjet Machining of Al/B4C Metal Matrix Composites

In the present investigations, an attempt is made to study the Abrasive waterjet Machining (AWJM) aspects of Metal Matrix Composites (MMCs) consist of aluminium alloy (Al 7075) reinforced with boron carbide (B₄C) in various proportion such as 5%, 10% and 15% by weight for achieving maximum depth of cut. Experiments were conducted on the trapezoidal shaped specimens in the unreinforced Al 7075 and MMCs by varying the input process parameters such as abrasive mesh sizes, abrasive flow rate, waterjet pressure and traverse rate. The experiments were carried out based on Response Surface Methodology (RSM) using Box Behnken method. The results were analyzed using response graphs. From the analysis, it is observed low abrasive mesh size, high abrasive flow rate, high waterjet pressure and low traverse rate are resulted in higher DOC in the unreinforced Al 7075 as well as MMCs.