3.1 Cavitation water jet array micro-forming
The plastic array micro-forming experiment was carried out on a 304 stainless steel foil with a thickness of 80 µm, length of 60 mm and width of 60 mm under the condition of a 120 mm target distance and 5 min action time.
The impact three-dimensional morphology cloud map randomly of Fig. 7(b) is selected in the hollow vacuoles collapse impact region in Fig. 7(a). The three-dimensional image of impact of Fig. 7(b) is randomly selected in the impact zone of vacuoles collapse in Fig. 7(a). Its cross-section shows the smooth profile, and the forming depth is uniform. No crack exists on the surface of the formed hole, and no wrinkle forms around the hole. Fig. 7(c) is a two-dimensional profile of all array micro-pores of a-f in the L1 direction in Fig. 7(a). The forming depth of micro-pores a and i in the outer impact zone and micro-pores e and f in the water jet impingement zone is not ideal. The b-d and g-i micro-pores on the impact zone of vacuoles collapse have good shapes, and the uniformity of forming holes and the consistency of the maximum forming depth are good. Good shape and surface quality can be obtained by this method for the foil plastic array micro-forming.
3.2 Effect of impact time on the micro-array forming
The impact time is one of the important parameters for the metal foil plastic array micro-forming by cavitating water jet. Therefore, the control target distance is 120 mm, and the inlet pressure is 20 MPa. The average depth and depth variance of a 304 stainless steel for all holes in the cavitation collapse impact zone are obtained with the curve of changed impact action time.
With the increase in impact action time, the depth of micro-hole increases, and the variance decreases as shown in Fig. 8. When the impact time was 1 min, the depth of the micro-pore was only 68.5 µm. However, when the impact time reached 5 min, the depth of the array micro-pore was increased to 159 µm. This phenomenon is due to the increase in time. The cavitation collapse and impact at the same position accumulate continuously, with the variation rule of array micro-pore depth obviously increasing and a surfacing variance which decreases with time. When the impact time increased from 1 min to 2 min, the array micro-pore depth increased by 34.5 µm. However, considering that the vacuoles collapse impact will produce an impact strengthening effect on the surface of the sample, the depth of the array micro-pores only increased by 12 µm in the process from 4 min to 5 min, with an increased forming difficulty.
Table 1
Average forming depth and standard deviation variation with forming time at the stand-off distance of 120 mm
Depth (µm)/Variance (µm)
|
Time t (min)
|
r=10.2 mm
|
Time t (min)
|
r=10.2 mm
|
1
|
67.3/15.5
|
1
|
67.3/15.5
|
2
|
105.3/13.2
|
2
|
105.3/13.2
|
3
|
127.3/10.8
|
3
|
127.3/10.8
|
4
|
147.3/8.6
|
4
|
147.3/8.6
|
5
|
158.5/7.4
|
5
|
158.5/7.4
|
Aiming at the impact time of the array of micro-holes at different positions in the cavitation water-jet cavitation collapse impact zone on the depth and variance of the micro-holes, the arrays of micro-holes b, c and d in Fig. 7(a) are selected as the research objects, and its radii are respectively r=10.2 mm, 13.6 mm and 17 mm. Its mean and variance are taken to obtain the variance of array micro-pore depth at different radii in the vacuoles collapse impact region, which varies with the impact time as shown in Table. 1.
It can also be seen that increasing the impact time is helpful for improving the uniformity of the forming depth of the foil array micro-pores, and the array micro-pores at r=13.6mm have the largest depth and more uniform forming depth. Mainly because this corresponds to the position of the shear layer cavitation vortex ring, the cavitation moves rapidly downstream and collapses here. Which is consistent with the results of the researches in literature [17] and literature [20].
3.3 Effect of the target distance on the array micro-forming
The target distance of impact is another important parameter for the plastic array micro-forming of metal foil with cavitating water jet. Therefore, with the control pressure of 20 MPa and the impact time of 5 min, the average depth value and depth variance of all holes formed in the 304 stainless steel foil in the cavitation collapse impact zone are obtained as shown in Fig. 9.
With the increase in target distance, the depth of array micro-pores first increases and then decreases as shown in Fig. 9. When the target distance is S=120 mm, the micro-pore depth is obviously better than other target distances, and the variance of micro-forming depth under different target distances is similar, but the variance is small when the target distance is 120 mm. The main reason is that when the target distance is 120 mm, a large number of cavities are in the stage of concentrated collapse. When the target distance is bigger than 120 mm, the cavitation will collapse before reaching the target surface. Thus, the depth of micro-hole of the array decreases rapidly, and the uniformity of array-forming holes is poor.
Aiming at the influence of array micro-pore target distance at different positions in the cavitation collapse impact zone of cavitating water jet on the depth and variance of micro-pore, the arrays of micro-pores on the radii of b, c and d in Fig. 7(a) are r=10.2 mm, 13.6 mm and 17 mm are similarly selected as the research objects. Then, the mean and variance are taken. The variation values of the depth and variance of the array micro-pore with target distance at different radii in vacuoles collapse impact zone are obtained as shown in Table. 2.
Table 2
Average forming depth and standard deviation variation with the stand-off distances at 5 min
|
Depth (µm)/variance (µm)
|
Target distance S (mm)
|
r=10.2 mm
|
r=13.6 mm
|
r=17 mm
|
100
|
76/9.5
|
85.4/8.2
|
89.4/8.6
|
110
|
136.2/7.7
|
147.5/6.9
|
145.5/7.9
|
120
|
158.9/7.3
|
166.2/5.9
|
156.5/7
|
130
|
141.2/7.5
|
151.8/6.6
|
149.8/8.1
|
140
|
58.3/7.8
|
74.6/7.2
|
66.8/8.2
|
The trend in the change of the depth and its variance of the array micro-pore with the same target distance are known. However, when the target distance is 120 mm, the array micro-pore depth values on all radii are the largest, and the variance is the smallest. The value depth of the array micro-pore at r=13.6 mm is the largest, reaching 166.2 µm. Furthermore, the minimum variance is only 5.9 µm, which indicates that the quality of the array micro-pore is the best at this position.
3.4 Surface roughness analysis of array micro-holes
The most commonly used contour arithmetic square variance (Ra) is used to characterise the roughness of the bottom of array micro-pore of the 304 stainless steel. Its Ra is
$${R_a}=\frac{1}{n}\sum\limits_{{i=1}}^{n} {\left| {{z_i}} \right|}$$
6
The original surface of the 304 stainless steel material is a measured roughness of three positions as shown in Fig. 10. The length is 132 µm and the original surface roughness is 0.507 µm.
Based on the previous study in the vacuoles collapse impact zone, the pressure of 20 MPa, the target distance of 120 mm, the impact time of 5 min and the 304 stainless steel material micro-holes are chosen as the object. The micro-holes of different radii are randomly selected, and the surface morphology of the bottom surface is observed as shown in Fig. 11. Compared with the roughness of the original surface, morphology such as an orange peel appeared on the bottom surface of the array micro-pores at all positions, and the rolling trace basically disappeared and the surface became somewhat coarsened.
To further examine the roughness variation rule of the surface of array micro-pores, the roughness of the surfaces of all the bottom parts of micro-pores with different radii was measured, and the average value was taken to obtain the surface roughness variation curve as shown in Fig. 12.
The mean roughness values of micro-pores of different radii are close to one another, which are all above 1.3 µm. The maximum roughness of micro-pores of radius r=13.6 mm is 1.54 µm, and the minimum roughness of micro-pores in radius r=17mm is 1.36 µm. The roughness is proportional to the depth of micro-pores. The larger the plastic deformation of the composite material, the more consistent the grain movement is with the macroscopic roughness.
3.5 Analysis for the thinning rate of array micro-pores
The thickness distribution of the array micro-forming holes in the impact zone of the sample was studied. The thinning of the material would lead to the risk of cracking, which would seriously damage the properties of the material. The cavitation bursting impact zone with the pressure of 20 MPa and the impact time of 5 min at a target distance of 120 mm is taken. A micro-hole of the inner radius r=13.6 is arbitrarily select and embed in epoxy. A digital microscope polished by sandpaper is used to measure the cross-sectional thickness as shown in Fig. 13.
Definition of the thinning rate of foil T:
(7)
where t0 is the initial thickness of the sample, ti is the thickness of the measuring point of the forming hole.
Fifteen points were selected for the measurement. Owing to the vacuoles collapse impact, the material flow was difficult under the rigid contact constraint of the round corners of the micro-die; thus, the minimum thickness is 70.4 µm at the rounded corners of the micro-die. The restriction on the part from the rounded corners of the micro-die to the centre of the cavity is lack under the action of inertia effect, it tends to increase and then decrease. Fig. 14 illustrates the thickness distribution of the micro-pore section.
Figure 15 shows the variation of thinning rate of array micro-pores in different radii of vacuoles collapse impact zone of the 304 stainless steel foil under pressure of 20 MPa, target distance of 120 mm and impact time of 5 min. The thinning rates of the array micro-formed parts in the impact zone of vacuoles collapse are between 2% and 13.5%, and the variation trend of the thinning rate between the micro-formed holes at different positions is the same. However, the overall thinning rate of array micro-pores with radius r=13.6 mm is larger, and the maximum value is 13.375% at the rounded corner of micro mould. The overall thinning rate of array micro-pores on radius r=10.2 mm is smaller, but its maximum value also appears at the corner of micro mould, which is 10.75%. In addition, the thinning rates of all the array micro-pores are generally between 2–10% except at the fillet, which indicates that the thickness distribution of the samples impacted by cavitating water jet is good.