EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF SURFACE ROUGHNESS AND TAPER ANGLE IN ABRASIVE WATER JET MACHINING OF 7075 ALUMINUM COMPOSITE USING RESPONSE SURFACE METHODOLOGY

Abstract

Surface roughness and taper angle of an abrasive waterjet machined surface of 7075 Aluminum metal matrix composite were deliberately studied. Response surface methodology design of experiments and analysis of variance were used to design the experiments and to identify the effect of process parameters on surface roughness and taper angle. The jet traverse speed and jet pressure were the most significant process parameters which influence the surface roughness and taper angle, respectively. Increasing the pressure and jet traverse speed results in increasing the surface roughness and taper angle. At the same time, decreasing the standoff distance and jet traverse speed possibly enhances both the responses. The optimal process parameters of 1[Formula: see text]mm as standoff distance, 192[Formula: see text]MPa as water pressure and 30[Formula: see text]mm[Formula: see text]min[Formula: see text] as jet traverse speed were identified to obtain the minimum value of surface roughness and taper angle. Based on the optimal parameters, the confirmation test was conducted. The mathematical equation was obtained from the experimental data using regression analysis; it was observed that the error was less than 5% of the experimentally measured values.