Optimisation of Parameters for Abrasive Water Jet Machining of Aluminium 7075 Alloys using Taguchi Method

This research focuses on the experimentation of Abrasive Water Jet Machining (AWJM) applied to aluminium (Al) 7075 alloys. Three critical AWJM parameters - water jet pressure (WJP), stand-off distance (SOD) and traverse speed (TS) were systematically varied across three levels in a series of experiments designed using Taguchi's L9 orthogonal array. For effective machining by AWJM, the process parameters are optimised, specifically assessing their influence on material removal rate (MRR). The methodology employed is Taguchi's method and subsequent is applied. The optimal combination as WJP of 3800 bar, SOD of 2mm and TS of 80.21mm/min was identified through the Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). Notably, the ANOVA indicated that TS played a significantly impactful role, contributing to 76.85% of the observed outcomes. Post-AWJM, Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) analysis was conducted, unveiling the presence of distinct features indicating an increase in the MRR. The developed mathematical model for MRR demonstrated a close correspondence between predicted response outcomes and the experimental findings. To validate the identified optimal parameter levels of AWJM, a confirmation test was conducted, affirming the robustness of the settings arrived.