Key Experimental Investigations of cutting dimensionality by Abrasive Water Jet Machining on Basalt Fiber/Fly ash Reinforced Polymer Composite

Abrasive water jet machining is a versatile in function to cut the extremely hard and inhomogeneous structured materials. Thermo set polymer matrix designed with multiple layer of hard rock fiber and fly ash rendered a high-performance structural material. The aim of the work is to investigate the cutting dimensionality of Basalt fiber/fly ash reinforced vinyl ester composite on abrasive water jet machining. Composite laminates-are prepared by multi stacking of basalt fiber with variation in fly ash particle loading (5-20 wt. %) using a compression molding technique. Improved mechanical properties of composites are obtained on varying the composition of fly ash. The linear progression of mechanical proprieties was limited by the agglomeration of fly ash particles. Mechanical properties enhancement is attributed to the polymer chain termination with fly ash particles leading to cross link density. The fracture mechanism and mode failure observed to be matrix cracking, particles crushing and brittle failure of fiber. Analysis of kerf dimension and surface cut quality were done by varying the cutting parameters of Abrasive Water Jet Machining (AWJM). Kerf dimensional deviation reducing with fly ash loading however exceeding critical loading there is a more edge damage observed. The dimensional deviation was controlled by varying the process parameters and determined the acceptance level of cutting as found by fly ash loading up to 10%. It is observed that cutting dimension deviation more when exceeding the level of 10% fly ash. Increasing jet pressure intensity reduces the fiber edge pull out and damages. Consequently, cut surface smoothness was majorly affected by fly ash loading. Surface roughness of cut surface was varied from 2 to 5μm as increasing in fly ash loading.