Investigation of Material Deformation by the High-Speed Water Slugs

Water constitutes an attractive manufacturing tool It is readily available and clean. The waterjets are conventionally used for surface cleaning, material removal, and surface modification. The intrinsic shortcomings of such an application are the need in the use of expensive and heavy pumping facilities and, what are more important, peculiarities of the waterjet-substrate interaction which limit material deformation by the incoming jet. These shortcomings are eliminated if the workpiece is impacted by the array of the water slugs, generated by the direct injection of high-intensity energy pulses into the water vessel (barrel) and ejection the portion of the water via the nozzle attached into the barrel. Such a device (barrel-nozzle combination) will constitute an effective and versatile manufacturing tool. Understanding of the phenomena that occur in the course of the energy injection into the water is necessary for the design of the desired device. The phenomena in question are determined by the ratio between the speed of the water in the barrel in the course of the energy injection and the speed of the shock waves in the water. If this ratio is much less than unity, the exit velocity is determined by the ratio between the cross section areas of the nozzle exit and the barrel. If the ratio in question approaches the unity, the water velocity at the nozzle exit is determined by the impact pressure. The device utilizing this principle is termed the water extruder. If however, the ratio is much more than unity the exit water velocity is determined by the superposition of shock waves developed in the fluid. This device termed the water cannon is able to accelerate the water slug to the speed far exceeding 1,000 m/sec. The numerical and experimental studies of water extruder were carried out. The numerical models were constructed and the variation of the water velocity and the water pressure in the barrel were investigated. Experimental setup for the study of the water extruder was constructed by the modification of Remington power tool. The experiments involved the piercing of metal strips. The effect of operational conditions on the maximal depth of the piecing was determined. Another series of experiments involved the study of the slug impact on plastic (lead) and brittle (concrete) materials. The effect of the stand off distance on the removal of both kinds of material was investigated. As the result the suggestions about the way of construction of the water extruders and their practical applications were made.Copyright © 2002 by ASME