Simulation of abrasive water jet cutting process: Part 2. Cellular automata approach

A new two-dimensional cellular automata (CA) model for the simulation of the abrasive water jet (AWJ) cutting process is presented. The CA calculates the shape of the cutting front, which can be used as an estimation of the surface quality. The cutting front is formed based on material removal rules and AWJ propagation rules. The material removal rule calculates when a particular part of the material will be removed with regard to the energy of AWJ. The AWJ propagation rule calculates the distribution of AWJ energy through CA by using a weighted average. The modelling with CA also provides a visual narrative of the moving of the cutting front, which is hard to observe in real process. The algorithm is fast and has been successfully tested in comparison to cutting fronts obtained with cutting experiments of aluminium alloy.