Analysis of Water Flow through the Active Parts of an Abrasive Water Jet Machine: A Combined Analytical and CFD Approach

Abstract

This study has the main objective of the analysis of water flow through the active parts (cutting head CH) of an abrasive water jet (AWJ) machine, model YCWJ-380-1520, performed on a high-pressure nozzle (HPN) and mixing tube (MT). The flow is analyzed through the ruby orifice with a diameter of 0.25 mm by assimilating it with a circular pipe. Taking into account the fact that the average flow velocity through the ruby orifice is about 622 m/s, the value of 155,500 according to the Reynolds criterion was obtained. Regarding the turbulent flow regime, the flow section is divided into four zones; for each of them, the limits of flow layers and the maximum values of water velocities were determined. In the second part of this work, a 2D analysis of the flow through the CH assembly was carried out. Since the abrasive inlet tube (AT) also appears in the CH componence, two situations were analyzed in this study, namely, the case when the inlet through AT is restricted and the case when the AT is free. For each case, three values of flow diameters were considered, both for HPN and MT. The water flow characteristics were established and comparisons between theoretical models and CFD simulation were performed.