Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx

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Materials Today: Proceedings

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CFD analysis of slurry jet behavior after striking the target surface and
effect of solid particle concentration on jet flow
Nilesh Kumar Sharma a,⇑, Satish Kumar Dewangan a, Pankaj Kumar Gupta b
a
National Institute of Technology, Raipur, CG 49201, India
b
Guru Ghasidas University, Bilaspur, CG, India

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Abrasive flow jet machining (ASJM) is modern manufacturing technique which uses comparatively low-
Available online xxxx pressure abrasive flow jet for machining various machined surfaces like holes, channels and intricate
shapes which is not possible from conventional machining processes. The effect of abrasive particle con-
Keywords: centration on the impacting slurry velocity on the surface was examined in the present CFD simulation,
Multiphase Flow resulting in target surface erosion. To predict the impact velocity of abrasive particles hitting the surface,
Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) a 2D CFD model was used. The depth of machined surface, surface irregularity and surface removal rate at
ASJM
normal incidence mainly depend on the KE of particle, impact angle, etc. in line with previously published
Solid particle erosion
research work on highly pressurised air and water driven abrasive jet. In the present work CFD simulation
is performed to predict the effect of solid particle concentration on the impacting slurry jet velocity at the
target surface and also turbulence kinetic energy near the surface is studied. As per the CFD results the
simulation model predictions the velocity of impacting particle goes on decreasing due to internal fric-
tional resistance between solid and liquid phase and it shows scope of further parametric analysis in this
area.
Ó 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the International Confer-
ence on Nanoelectronics, Nanophotonics, Nanomaterials, Nanobioscience & Nanotechnology.

1. Introduction
ASJM is a very innovative and popular non conventional
machining process which is used in many engineering applica-
tions. This process of material erosion depends on many factors
like impacting particle velocity, particle concentration, impacting
angle, nozzle size, etc. Solid particle concentration in slurry jet is
one of factor which is responsible for slurry impacting velocity
and erosion of target surface. Many researchers have developed
various models to predict the surface formation after impacting
of jet like Nouraei et al. [1] studied the low pressure ASJ experi-
mental model using highly pressurised air to influence the abrasive
jet from a 180 mm orifice diameter. Also they have evaluated the
various parameters on the micro-machining of various complex
surface with comparison of AJM. It concluded that brittle erosion
is mechanism of dominant substance elimination in both cases
but erosion rate was lower in ASJM compared to AJM due to the
⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: nilesh_sharma87@rediffmail.com (N. Kumar Sharma).
rapid decrement in particle velocity of slurry near the target sur-
face. Pang et al. [2] analysed the mechanism of micro-channel for-
mation in abrasive water jet machining of amorphous glasses and
it show good fundamental understanding for the channel shape
formation process as well as the effects of the various affecting
parameters on the process. Getu et. Al. [3] determined the specific
erosion rate of PMMA with a high speed abrasive jet as a function
of the impact angle, used the actual erosion model to predict the
evolution of the surface profile, including the effect of mask parti-
cle and found that the maximum erosion rate was about 250 rela-
tive to the surface, indicating ductile erosion mechanism. Many
researchers have studied the mechanism of solid particle erosion
with high stream jet and concluded that mechanism of solid
changes is based on ductility of surface. A systematic analy-
sis of modelling the solid particle erosion for oil and gas pipe line
applications has been carried out by Parsi et al. [4]. They reported
that apart from past investigation and analysis done on erosion
there is still lot more future scope for study of parameters (e.g. par-
ticle size, concentration, target surface properties, surface profile,
effect of fluid viscosity etc.) responsible for surface evolution by

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2021.05.475
2214-7853/Ó 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the International Conference on Nanoelectronics, Nanophotonics, Nanomaterials,
Nanobioscience & Nanotechnology.

Please cite this article as: N. Kumar Sharma, S. Kumar Dewangan and P. Kumar Gupta, CFD analysis of slurry jet behavior after striking the target surface
and effect of solid particle concentration on jet flow, Materials Today: Proceedings, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2021.05.475
N. Kumar Sharma, S. Kumar Dewangan and P. Kumar Gupta Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx

Nomenclature

!
us Velocity of solid particles (m/s) kw Bulk viscosity of liquid phase
!
uw Velocity of liquid (water) (m/s) ks Bulk viscosity of solid particles
as Volumetric concentration of solid particles (%) g0,ss Radial distribution function
aw Volumetric concentration of liquid (water) (%) ls Granular shear viscosity
qs Density of the solid particles (kg/m3) eSS Restitution coefficient for particle collisions
qw Density of the liquid (water) (kg/m3) lT;w Turbulent viscosity
ss Stress tensor for solid particles C1e ,C2e ,C3e Model constant
sw Stress tensor for liquid phase (water)
G Acceleration due to gravity (m/s2)

solid particle impact. Further effect of impact velocity of particle

Table 1
and impingement angle on erosion rate and surface roughness Detail of the model geometry.
were studied by Nguyen et. al. [5] indicating that the erosion rate
Model geometrical parameter Magnitude (mm)
was initially high and steadily decreased over the period of study.
Moreover, with an increase in impact velocity, the erosion rate Target sample dimension (length) 20
Nozzle exit to target distance 20
increased, while surface roughness increased with either increased
Nozzle exit diameter 0.14
testing time or impact velocity. While these erosion models are
sufficient to accurately predict the erosion rate for ductile and brit-
tle materials, they only require some inputs related to impact
Table 2
properties. The aim of this paper was to explore the effect of solid Simulation Parameter.
particle concentration in slurry jet while impacting on the flat sur-
face and also calculating the velocity of impacting particle and tur- Parameter Details

bulence kinetic energy of mixture near the target surface by using Solid particle material Al2O3
the models that were actually established for abrasive water-jet Particle size (mm) 25
Solid Particle density (Al2O3) (kg/m3) 3900
machining.
Particle concentration by weight % 10%,15%, 25%,30%
Carrier fluid Water
(a) Density (q) = 998.12 kg/m3
(b) Viscosity (m) = 0.0010028 kg/m-s.
2. Physical problem, boundary conditions and assumptions Slurry jet Impact angle 90°
Slurry speed at Inlet (m/s) 65,72,78,89,96,110
A model with perpendicular incident jet to a flat surface was Inlet condition Velocity Inlet
created for calculating the impact parameters (particle impact Outlet condition Pressure outlet
Turbulence model K-e model
velocity and turbulence kinetic energy) which is further examined
Multiphase Model Eulerian
for erosion rate. In the present work, two dimension CFD model of Maximum residual converge criteria 104
slurry jet striking the target surface was performed to determine
slurry striking velocity which is further used for calculating the
erosion rate at target surface. In order to calculate the KE of For establishing the relationship of momentum and energy
impinging jet, the particle velocity must be known at the stagna- transfer between two phases, water is considered as continuum
tion zone formed just before targeted surface. It was found that and Navier-Stokes equations are used. The Eulerian approach is
these velocities of abrasive particles are much lower than the ini- used for carrier fluid (water) and to study the flow behaviour k-e
tial jet issuing form nozzle exit due to air resistance and stagnation turbulence model were used, while the Lagrangian approach was
zone created at the target surface. The computational model of the used for particles behaviour. To ensure that the simulation can
considered 2D impact jet shown in Fig. 1 and the list of the consid- accurately predict the physical behaviour of slurry flow and ero-
ered input simulation parameters and boundary conditions are sion rate, the 2D computational domain is constructed. Simulation
given in Table 1 and Table 2 below. was performed separately for different particle concentration (10%,
15%, 25% and 30%) of solid particle in slurry jet. Effect of flow vari-
ation and impacting particle at different eroded surface is
neglected by considering wall to be smooth during CFD simulation.
At 20 mm upstream of target surface, the velocity of both abra-
sive jet stream as well as carrier fluid will be same as concluded by
Nouraei et al. [1]. The orthogonal grid was used in the current work
to mesh the geometry considered for the constitutive model as
shown in Fig. 2. All meshes were generated using the ICEM soft-
ware for modelling and meshing (ANSYS Inc., PA, USA). In the mod-
els, approximately between 39,000 and 40,000 mesh elements
were used.

Fig. 1. Two dimensional axis symmetric model domain of slurry jet.

2
N. Kumar Sharma, S. Kumar Dewangan and P. Kumar Gupta Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx

3.2. Mathematical modeling of turbulence

In order to correlate the Reynolds stress for slurry jet and turbu-
lent flux terms to the average jet variables, the k-e turbulence
model the eddy-viscosity assumption. The turbulent KE for the liq-
uid phase is

@ l
aw qw kw þ r:aw qw uw kw ¼ r:aw t;w rkw þ aw Gk;w
@t rk
 aw qw ew þ aw qw ePk;w ð5Þ
The turbulent energy dissipation rate for the liquid phase is

@ l e
Fig. 2. Meshing style adopted for 2D model. aw qw kw þ r:aw qw uw ew ¼ r:aw t;w rew þ aw w C1e Gk;w
@t re kw
 C2e aw ew þ aw qw Pe;w ð6Þ
3. Mathematical modeling and numerical formulation

3.1. Governing equation where, GK,W is production rate of turbulent KE due to the velocity
gradients. Pk,w and Pe,w represent the interactions between the liq-
The impacting slurry jet is modelled using the fluent software uid phase.
two-fluid or Eulerian form. It is suggested that individual phases
(carrier phase and solid phase) in the same computational volume
may be present at the same time. The conservative mass equation
4. Result and discussion
for the carrier fluid (water) ’w’ and abrasive particle (Al2O3)’s’ is,
(Assuming no mass transfer between the phases)
In this research work we have varied the solid particle concen-
tration in slurry and its effect is being studied using CFD simulation
@
aw qw þ r:aw qw uw ¼ 0 ð1Þ model. After that simulation results for a specific value of the
@t
machining process and geometric parameters are explained. The
effect of the abrasive particle concentration of inlet slurry jet on
and
the impacting velocity of abrasive particle at target surface was
subsequently considered. The velocity of fully developed slurry
@
as qs þ r:as qs us ¼ 0 ð2Þ jet of CFD simulation models were validated with the experimental
@t
results and the change in pressure at the impacting surface due to
high speed jet with reported experimental results, as defined in
where,
Table 3. The agreement was very strong in all situations. The veloc-
ity of the solid particle (Al2O3) and the velocity of the liquid phase
as þ aw ¼ 1
differed at the inlet. Results are approximately similar to the Ana-
Therefore, for the liquid phase (water), the conservation equa- lytical simulation done in paper mentioned with minor percentage
tion of the momentum is error.
The below Figs. 3 and 4 demonstrate the near-target jet velocity
@ and turbulence kinetic energy in a normal jet incident of 25 lm
aw qw uw þ r:aw qw uw uw ¼ aw rp þ r:sw þ aw qw g
@t particle size at 65 m/s jet velocity (solid concentration 25%).A little
þ Ksw ðus  uw ð3Þ variation is showing in above jet trajectory with some minor error
with the numerical results. Now after successful validation of the
and the momentum conservation equation for the solid phase is experimental results in research work we have performed the
same simulation with different solid particle concentration i.e. at
@
as qs us þ r:as qs us us ¼ as rp  r:ps þ r:pss þ as qs g 10%, 15% and 30% to check the effect of slurry concentration on
@t the particle impacting velocity near the target surface. As at the
þ Kws ðuw  us Þ ð4Þ centerline of jet a stagnation zone is created due to which it restrict
the incoming slurry jet causing drag which reduce the velocity of
where Ksw = Kws, is the solid–liquid momentum transfer coefficient. impacting solid particle (Fig. 5).

Table 3
For particles with solid phase concentration 10%, 15%, 25% and 30%, CFD predicts the normal particle impact velocity at different velocities (i.e. in Table 3) and jet impact angles
of = 90°.

Solid Particle concentration (in % by volume) Velocity of impinging abrasive slurry jet at the end of Nozzle (m/s)
65 72 78 89 96 110
Impacting slurry jet velocity on the target surface (m/s)
10 26.0 28.6 29.0 38.8 45.2 51.0
15 29.3 33.4 37.1 41 47.2 53.2
25 32.5 36 39 44 48 55.0
30 32.5 37.2 40.5 43.2 49.7 55.5

3
N. Kumar Sharma, S. Kumar Dewangan and P. Kumar Gupta
Fig. 3. The contour of velocity of impinging slurry jet on the target surface for
particle concentration 25% with jet velocity 65 m/s. (i.e. Table 2).
Fig. 4. The contour of turbulence kinetic energy (m2/s2) for slurry jet impingement
on target surface for particle concentration 25%, jet velocity 65 m/s.
4.1. Correlating the solid phase concentration with the impacting
slurry jet velocity on the target surface
There is a close correlation of the solid particle concentration of
mixture with the slurry impacting velocity and also with turbu-
lence kinetic energy of mixture near the target surface. CFD simu-
lation were performed to check the effect of this and it show some
variation in jet trajectory which is shown below
Fig. 5. Velocity decay of a water jet (phase 1) and solid particle (phase 2) (Al2O3) passing through nozzle exit with the initial jet velocity of 65 m/s.
4
Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx
Fig. 6. Effect of variation of the solid particle concentration at velocity of impacting
jet on the target surface. (a) For 10% solid concentration with jet velocity 65 m/s, (b)
For 15% solid concentration with jet velocity 65 m/s and (c) For 30% solid
concentration with jet velocity 65 m/s.
The above results show that variation in the solid particle con-
centration have increase the impact slurry velocity on the target
surface which have much influence in erosion rate because of par-
ticle–particle interaction which we assumed to be negligible in the
study.
5. Conclusion
CFD simulations is performed for inlet slurry jet velocity of
65 m/s and different solid particle concentration (10%, 15% and
30%) with same standoff distance as in published research work,
by checking the results it seems it have valuable effect on slurry
jet impacting the surface which leads to increased kinetic energy
of particles striking the surface that causes deep machined surface.
It is clear from the above results that the CFD simulation have done
good agreement with numerical analytical results with a minor
error and also the modification in the input parameter give
remarkable effect on the, impact slurry velocity on the target sur-
face, which is further used for erosion rate calculation of target sur-
N. Kumar Sharma, S. Kumar Dewangan and P. Kumar Gupta
Fig. 7. Effect of variation of the solid particle concentration on turbulence KE of
slurry mixture. (a) For 10 % solid concentration with jet velocity 65 m/s, (b) For 15 %
solid concentration with jet velocity 65 m/s and (c) For 30 % solid concentration
with jet velocity 65 m/s.
face. In the preset study the abrasive jet impact on rigid wall and
steady state analysis is done using k-e turbulence model for flow-
ing carrier fluid (water) while multi-phase model used is Eulerian
model. Results of CFD showed that increasing particle concentra-
tion appeared to increase the KE in stagnation zones of impacting
abrasive particles, thereby increasing the surface formation depth
as shown in Figs. 6 and 7. The CFD simulation results done close
accuracy with experimental data and Eulerian model show better
result for particle erosion on flat surface at steady state. CFD sim-
ulation estimated the amount of turbulence as represented by
the mixture TKE is the function of the inlet abrasive particle con-
centration and inlet free jet velocity. Amount of the turbulence is
least just before the stagnation zone due to proper jet flow and it
is maximum near the target surface due to rebound of particle of
slurry jet after striking the target surface. As the particle move
from inlet the impact velocity at the surface of erodent is less than
the inlet velocity because stagnation zone is setup near the target
surface due to drag created by impacting slurry jet.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing finan-
cial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared
to influence the work reported in this paper.
Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx
Acknowledgement
The authors are grateful to the NIT, Raipur College for giving us
permission to use the ANSYS FLUENT software facility and the
Institute library.
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[1] O.W. Fähnle, H.V. Brug, H.J. Frankena, Fluid jet polishing of optical surfaces,
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[3] R. Haj Mohammad Jafar, J.K. Spelt, M. Papini, Surface roughness and erosion rate
of abrasive jet micro-machined channels: experiments and analytical model,
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brittle materials by powder blasting, Sens. Actuators A: Phys. 85 (1) (2000) 296–
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particle erosion mechanisms of brittle materials, J. Mater. Sci. 48 (16) (2013)
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[7] R. Haj Mohammad Jafar, H. Nouraei, M. Emamifar, M. Papini, J.K. Spelt, Erosion
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wall using CFD, J. Mater. Process. Technol. 224 (2015) 240–245.
[9] M.-H. Wang, C. Huang, K. Nandakumar, P. Minev, J. Luo, S. Chiovelli,
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in slurry jet flows, Int. J. Comput. Fluid Dyn. 23 (2) (2009) 155–172.
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