The work aims to investigate the erosion mechanism and low-thermal-damage pre-machining applicability of post-mixed abrasive water jet (AWJ) cutting for zirconium-carbide dispersion-strengthened tungsten (W-0.5wt% ZrC, WZC), a candidate plasma-facing material for fusion reactors. Cutting experiments were performed on hot-rolled WZC plates with a thickness of 12 mm and a width of 20 mm via a self-built CNC post-mixed AWJ system with 80-mesh garnet abrasives. A two-factor three-level full factorial design was adopted at a fixed standoff distance of 3 mm, with jet pressures of 320, 350 and 380 MPa and feed rates of 15, 10 and 5 mm·min-1. Wire electrical discharge machining (WEDM) was used as a reference process. The representative AWJ condition of 380 MPa and 10 mm·min-1 was selected for mechanism-level analysis, and additional 10° forward-tilt and lateral-tilt cutting tests were conducted to examine oblique-incidence effects. Surface morphology, cross-sectional damage and elemental distribution were characterized by SEM and EDS.
A coupled smoothed particle hydrodynamics-finite element method (SPH-FEM) model was established in LS-DYNA to interpret particle dynamics, kerf formation and depth-dependent material removal. WZC was described by a Johnson-Cook constitutive model coupled with the Grüneisen equation of state, while element failure was implemented through an equivalent plastic-strain erosion criterion. Water and abrasive phases were represented by SPH particles defined with *MAT_NULL and EOS-Grüneisen, and their coupling with the solid target was realized via *CONTACT_ERODING_NODES_TO_SURFACE. Considering post-mixing energy loss and abrasive acceleration, the jet exit velocity was set to 0.8 of the theoretical waterjet velocity, namely 697.42 m·s-1 at 380 MPa. Grid and particle-size verification led to an SPH spacing of 1.25 × 10-4 m and a refined FEM mesh size of 0.15 mm.
The WEDM surface appeared macroscopically smooth but contained a discontinuous recast layer, redeposited droplets and dense micro-crack networks, and cross-sectional observations confirmed a thermally affected modified layer with cracks extending toward the substrate. EDS further showed that the WEDM-machined surface composition deviated from the WZC matrix owing to melting, oxidation and resolidification. By contrast, AWJ produced a cold-cut surface without a continuous recast layer or thermally induced micro-cracks in the SEM observation range. The detected non-matrix elements were mainly attributed to locally dispersed garnet residues. The AWJ kerf wall exhibited clear smooth-rough stratification, with the smooth zone occupying approximately 42% of the cut surface. In the rough zone, backward-curving striations developed with theincreasing erosion depth. The average angle between the terminal tangents of three fitted drag-tail striations and the erosion direction was 8.73°. SEM observations at erosion depths of 2, 6, and 10 mm further showed a gradual transition from dense overlapping micro-cutting and micro-plowing grooves to enlarged cleavage facets, river patterns, and fan- or tongue-shaped fracture features. This indicated a depth-dependent change in the removal mode, from plastic-dominated removal in the upper region to cleavage-controlled brittle removal in the lower region.
The simulation reproduced crater initiation, particle rebound, secondary impacts and an upper-wide/lower-narrow kerf.The predicted lag-trajectory angle of approximately 9.1° agreed well with the measured drag-tail angle of 8.73°. Mechanistically, vertical particle kinetic energy attenuated nonlinearly with depth, including stagnation-zone damping that reduced particle velocity by up to about one third.Meanwhile, orthogonal momentum conversion transformed the blocked vertical jet into a wall jet, causing oscillatory feed-direction particle motion and multi-directional plowing traces. The 10° tilted-incidence tests did not change the fundamental "plastic upper/brittle lower" removal law, but altered groove orientation, lateral asymmetry and abrasive-residue distribution. Therefore, AWJ is suitable for cold blanking and low-thermal-damage pre-machining of WZC plates. However, because rough zones, drag-tail striations and local cleavage spalling remain on the sidewall, AWJ should be combined with precision finishing rather than used directly as the final machining process for complex divertor surfaces.
Key words
W-ZrC alloy /
abrasive water jet /
erosion mechanism /
surface integrity /
SPH-FEM coupling /
micro-morphology /
cleavage fracture
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Funding
Open Fund of Shanxi Key Laboratory of Advanced Manufacturing Technology (XJZZ202401); Natural Science Research Project of Anhui Educational Committee (2024AH050380)
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