Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx

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Optimization of machinability parameters in abrasive water jet

machining of AA7075 using Grey-Taguchi method
C. Joel a,b,⇑, T. Jeyapoovan c
a
Hindustan Institute of Technology and Science, Chennai, India
b
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Easwari Engineering College, Ramapuram, Chennai, India
c
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Hindustan Institute of Technology and Science, Chennai, India

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

Article history: Engineering Optimization leads to an important role in various engineering problems. Parametric opti-
Received 4 May 2020 mization is a systematic and effective way of generating and equating the machining parameters to attain
Received in revised form 25 May 2020 optimal machining. Aluminium and its alloys are widely utilized in various automotive sectors due to
Accepted 28 May 2020
their superior characteristics and great strength. In this research, AA7075 aluminium alloy was investi-
Available online xxxx
gated its machinability using the abrasive water jet cutting process. The main machinability parameters
like abrasive flow rate, nozzle speed, and stand-off distance are set to vary to obtain optimum values of
Keywords:
output values like material removal rate, hardness and surface roughness. Multi-objective optimisation
Abrasive water jet machining
AA7075
cannot be executed by a traditional Taguchi method. The Grey Relation Analysis linked with the
Grey-Taguchi method Taguchi method presents a new methodology to multi-parameter optimization as Grey-Taguchi method
Material removal rate is adopted. The results shows abrasive flow rate and nozzle speed are the most effective parameters to
Surface roughness obtain better output values.
Ó 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the International Confer-
ence on Newer Trends and Innovation in Mechanical Engineering: Materials Science.

1. Introduction
Nowadays, innovative non-conventional machining methods
are comprehensively used for explicating numerous issues in man-
ufacturing processes that include machining great strength materi-
als, improved surface structures, adept of high levels of accuracy, a
decrease of surplus and lesser production time. Amongst the sev-
eral advanced machining techniques, abrasive water jet machining
(AWJM) where work material is removed by high pressurized
water mixed with abrasives particle passed through water jet
[1,2]. The studies on metal alloy materials are undergone by many
researchers on AWJ technique in terms of analysing Ra and kerf
geometry [3].
Many of the researchers have worked on AWJ to determine the
effect of water jet velocity, stand-off distance, abrasive material,
nozzle size and shape on the whole machinability of both brittle
Abbreviations: AWJM, Abrasive water jet machining; GRA, Grey relational
analysis; MRR, Material Removal Rate; HD, Hardness; SR, Surface Roughness.
⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: joelresearchit@gmail.com (C. Joel).
and ductile materials by adopting the some numerical and statisti-
cal model methods with the appropriate design of experiment. A
mathematical model and predicted the surface roughness of AWJ
parameters. The regression analysis was done to predict the results
which give well correlated with the experimental values from
composite materials. The researcher was also done research using
AWJ by studying its surface roughness and kerf angle employing
DoE. Based on this Taguchi’s prediction, the quality of the cut is
compared with predicted values and found to increase in kinetic
energy of abrasive jet machining [4,5]. An investigation on the
machining parameters on rotational speed, mass flow rate, water
pressure with different combinations using central composite
rotatable design for estimating the metal removal rate. Based on
the statistical approach, it was concluded that the most significant
parameter in abrasive water jet turning is cutting head transverse
speed and depth of cut. However insignificant parameter is consid-
ered as a rotational speed [6].
The AWJ machining factors such as water jet pressure, nozzle
movement speed and stand-off distance were enhanced by for
the output responses with higher material removal rate and mini-
mum kerf profile and surface roughness by Taguchi’s methodology

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2020.05.741
2214-7853/Ó 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the International Conference on Newer Trends and Innovation in Mechanical Engineering:
Materials Science.

Please cite this article as: C. Joel and T. Jeyapoovan, Optimization of machinability parameters in abrasive water jet machining of AA7075 using Grey-Tagu-
chi method, Materials Today: Proceedings, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2020.05.741
2 C. Joel, T. Jeyapoovan / Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx

[7]. The influencing surface finish on material shaped by traditional

machining is normally uniform. Hence, the surface finish on the
respective pats surface can be identified by gauging the surface
roughness of anywhere on the machined area [8]. An investigated
the effect of process features like, mesh size, water pressure, tra-
verse speed and abrasive flow rate of abrasive water jet machining
on hybrid aluminium alloy composites for the predisposed the out-
put of surface roughness [9].
In this research work, AWJ machining of AA7075 is investigated.
Based on the varied input parameters through the optimization
technique, Grey-Taguchi method is used for determining the pre-
dicted optimal parametric combinations. The motivation is to
investigate the AWJ cutting performance by varying the level of
Abrasive feed rate, Nozzle Speed and Stand-off distance on cutting
of AA7075. Finally, the experiment is conducted based on opti-
mized parameters and the cutting accuracy was evaluated.

2. Aluminum alloy 7075

Fig. 1. Microstructural observations in AA7075 base material.

Aluminium alloys are having a light weight-based material

which is commonly used in many applications worldwide. This Table 2
Mechanical Properties of AA7075 Aluminium
AA7075 alloy is mainly used for high structural applications. It alloy.
has high ductility and possesses good toughness and fatigue resis-
tance. The 7075 type is one of the strongest alloys than other fam- Properties Values

ilies of aluminium alloys. It has a high strength to weight ratio and Density 2.81 g/cc
due to this combination, this 707 alloy is highly effective in aircraft Ultimate Tensile Strength 228 MPa
Tensile Yield Strength 103 MPa
industries as well in high-temperature applications.
Shear Strength 331 MPa
The chemical composition of AA7075 alloy is listed in Table 1. Fatigue Strength 159 MPa
The microstructure contains rich in iron phase with MgZn2 precip- Modulus of Elasticity 71.7 GPa
itate in the grain boundary and insoluble FeAl2 compound in 7075 Shear Modulus 26.9 GPa
aluminium alloy as shown in Fig. 1. The chemical composition of
base materials used for this experiment is listed in Table 2.

3. Experimental details

In this investigation, AA7075 was taken as a block of size of

length 500 mm, width 50 mm, height 50 mm for considered for
experimenting with Abrasive Water Jet cutting machine. The
Model S3015 Abrasive Water Jet cutting machine with gravity feed
abrasive hopper (Fig. 2) was offered with X-Y actions are measured
by pneumatically at X axis for 3000 mm and for Y axis 1500 mm
and nozzle movement speed can varies from 10 mm/min to
35 mm/min with the maximum water pressure of 320 MPa.
Fig.2. Abrasive water jet cutting machine.
A Box-Behnken three parameters of nozzle speed, abrasive feed
rate and standoff distance, three machinability parameter levels is
Table 3
identified and its factors and level are represented in Table 3. Experimental Factors and Levels.
Fifteen experimental sequences are conducted in AWJ with desig-
Symbol Factors Units Levels
nated factors level and MRR, Hardness and Surface roughness are
examined. 1 2 3
Fig. 3 shows the appearance of cut samples under AA7075 A Abrasive feed g/mm 250 300 350
material from the abrasive water jet cutting machine. The entire B Stand-off distance mm 2 3 4
AWJ machinability influencing factors and its out values are repre- C Nozzle speed m/mm 24 36 44

sented in Table 4.
4. Grey-Taguchi methodology
Grey relational analysis (GRA) is most widely used in multi-
response to normalize the output evaluation and is extended to
resolve the complicated characteristics on various machining
process [10,11]. In practice, there is more than one dependent vari-
able for real engineering applications. Taguchi method cannot be
used directly to optimize the multi-response problems. The Grey
Relation Analysis linked with the Taguchi method presents a new
methodology to multi-parameter optimization as Grey-Taguchi
method is adopted [12].

Table 1
Chemical Composition of AA7075 Aluminium alloy.

Elements Si Fe Cu Mn Mg Zn Cr Ti Al
Weight % 0.012 0.253 1.791 0.061 2.602 5.937 0.213 0.036 Bal.

Please cite this article as: C. Joel and T. Jeyapoovan, Optimization of machinability parameters in abrasive water jet machining of AA7075 using Grey-Tagu-
chi method, Materials Today: Proceedings, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2020.05.741
 C. Joel, T. Jeyapoovan / Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx 3

method to solve applications of a model that are compounded and

having imperfect data. The outputs considered here for finding the
optimal combinations are metal removal rate, surface hardness
and hardness.
According to Box-Behnken design, the optimal values were ana-
lyzed with three levels and three factors. The Grey relational grade
was applied to change an optimization model from a multi-
response to a singular objective to calculate the optimal combina-
tion of machining parameters that simultaneously maximize in
Material Removal Rate (MRR) as well as Hardness (HD) and mini-
mize in Surface Roughness (SR) [15]. Since higher grey relational
grade is desirable for multi-performance characteristics, larger-
the-better S/N quality characteristics were adopted. Normalizing
the original sequence adaptation is shown below in equations (1)
and (2).
MRR is the most important output values in AWJ which decides
the machinability of the material under attention. For the ‘‘larger-
the-better” characteristic like MRR and HD, then the original data
Fig. 3. AWC of AA7075 samples. is pre-processed as ‘larger-the-better’.

Table 4 xi ð0Þ ðkÞ  minxi ð0Þ ðkÞ

AWJ test results on AA7075. xi
ðkÞ ¼ ð1Þ
maxxi ð0Þ ðkÞ  minxi ð0Þ ðkÞ
Exp. Input Parameters Output Parameters
No. The SR is also a vital measure of AWJ components. To obtain
Abrasive Stand- Nozzle Metal Surface Hardness
optimal machining processes, the ‘‘smaller-the-better” quality fac-
Feed off Speed Removal Roughness
Distance Rate tors have been used for minimizing surface roughness, then origi-
nal data is pre-processed as ‘smaller-the-better’.
(g/min) (mm) (mm/ (g/sec) Ra (BHN)
min)
maxxi ð0Þ ðkÞ  xi ð0Þ ðkÞ
1 300 3 36 0.09530 6.43 182 xi
ðkÞ ¼ ð2Þ
2 300 2 28 0.07953 6.32 180 maxxi ð0Þ ðkÞ  minxi ð0Þ ðkÞ
3 300 4 28 0.10560 5.43 182
4 300 3 36 0.10315 4.21 181
where x(k)i * and xi(k) are the order after the factors pre-processing
5 350 3 28 0.10355 6.02 179
6 250 4 36 0.12980 5.68 193
and comparability order respectively, k = 1,2.. for MRR.., ; i = 1, 2,
7 250 3 44 0.07110 6.22 175 3. . ., 15 for experimental order 1 to 15.
8 350 3 44 0.06491 6.61 185 A grey relational coefficient c is calculated between the actual
9 350 4 36 0.14020 6.84 192 normalized experimental results with a distinguishing coefficient
10 250 3 28 0.10293 5.92 187 þeDmax
11 300 2 44 0.05440 6.35 191 of 0.5c ¼ DDoimin
ðkÞþeDmax
(3)
12 350 2 36 0.04879 6.85 184 where, D0i(k)=|x0*(k)-xi*(k)|, is the absolute value of the differ-
13 300 4 44 0.08550 7.63 184 ence between xo*(k) and xi*(k). The determination of grey rela-
14 250 2 36 0.08491 6 182
15 300 3 36 0.08289 6.88 183
tional grade is calculated by the sum of the grey relational
coefficients. The higher-grade denotes that, the grouping is near
to the optimum setting.
Based on the grey relational procedures, the stepwise sequence
It is used in combination with orthogonal array to get an impli- for calculating the grey relational grade is carried out by consider-
cations about the outcome of the factors and their relations on ing MRR and Hardness as maximization and minimization for Sur-
multiple responses [13–14]. The grey theory design on the arbi- face Roughness to evaluate the individual grades for evaluating the
trary insecurity of few trials which established into an assessment optimal parameters. The grey relational grade values for AA7075

Table 5
Calculation of Grey Relational Grades on AA7075.

Expt MRR [g/sec] SR [Ra] HD [BHN] Normalized Values Grey Relational Analysis Grey Relational Grade Grade Order
Coefficient
1 0.09530 6.43 182 0.509 0.351 0.389 0.491 0.649 0.611 0.505 0.435 0.450 0.463 9
2 0.07953 6.32 180 0.337 0.383 0.278 0.663 0.617 0.722 0.430 0.448 0.409 0.429 13
3 0.10560 5.43 182 0.622 0.643 0.389 0.378 0.357 0.611 0.569 0.584 0.450 0.534 6
4 0.10315 4.21 181 0.595 1.000 0.333 0.405 0.000 0.667 0.553 1.000 0.429 0.660 3
5 0.10355 6.02 179 0.599 0.471 0.222 0.401 0.529 0.778 0.555 0.486 0.391 0.477 7
6 0.12980 5.68 193 0.886 0.570 1.000 0.114 0.430 0.000 0.815 0.538 1.000 0.784 1
7 0.07110 6.22 175 0.245 0.412 0.000 0.755 0.588 1.000 0.398 0.460 0.333 0.397 15
8 0.06491 6.61 185 0.177 0.298 0.556 0.823 0.702 0.444 0.378 0.416 0.529 0.441 10
9 0.14020 6.84 192 1.000 0.231 0.944 0.000 0.769 0.056 1.000 0.394 0.900 0.765 2
10 0.10293 5.92 187 0.593 0.500 0.653 0.407 0.500 0.347 0.551 0.500 0.590 0.547 4
11 0.05440 6.35 191 0.062 0.374 0.903 0.938 0.626 0.097 0.348 0.444 0.837 0.543 5
12 0.04879 6.85 184 0.001 0.228 0.500 0.999 0.772 0.500 0.334 0.393 0.500 0.409 14
13 0.08550 7.63 184 0.402 0.000 0.500 0.598 1.000 0.500 0.455 0.333 0.500 0.430 12
14 0.08491 6 182 0.396 0.477 0.389 0.604 0.523 0.611 0.453 0.489 0.450 0.464 8
15 0.08289 6.88 183 0.374 0.219 0.444 0.626 0.781 0.556 0.444 0.390 0.474 0.436 11

Please cite this article as: C. Joel and T. Jeyapoovan, Optimization of machinability parameters in abrasive water jet machining of AA7075 using Grey-Tagu-
chi method, Materials Today: Proceedings, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2020.05.741
4 C. Joel, T. Jeyapoovan / Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx

Table 6
Response table for grey relational grade in AA7075.

Factors Levels
1 2 3
Abrasive Feed Rate 0.5281 0.5068 0.459
Stand-Off Distance 0.4974 0.5177 0.4761
Nozzle Speed 0.5224 0.5314 0.4339

Table 7
Optimal cutting parameter on AA7075.

AWJ cutting outputs Initial design Optimal AWJ parameters

Prediction Experiment
A1B2C1 A1B2C2 A1B2C2
Metal Removal Rate 0.1298 0.1216
Surface Roughness 5.68 5.64
Hardness 193 185.64
Grey relational grade 0.784 0.583 0.612

Fig. 4. Grey Relational Grade of AA7075.

Table 8
ANOVA for grey relational grade on AA7075.
are calculated based on the procedures explained in the previous
Machining DoF Sum of Mean F- p- %
section and values are summarized and listed in Table 5.
Parameter Square Square test value Contribution
Abrasive Feed 2 8.227 1.371 0.96 0.391 46.52
Rate (A)
Stand-Off 2 2.661 1.513 1.06 0.736 15.05
5. Optimization results based on GRA in AA7075 material Distance (B)
Nozzle Speed 2 6.501 3.251 2.37 0.174 36.76
The grey relational grade values are calculated based on the (C)
procedures explained above section and values are summarized Error 6 0.297 0.442 1.68
Total 12 17.686 100
in Table 5. From the experimentation, the highest grade value is
obtained with cutting parameters of A1, B2 and C1 are 0.784 which
is shown in Fig. 4. The cutting parameter of AF = 250 g/min,
SOD = 3 mm and NS = 28 mm/min shows the best combination in The confirmation experiment was done with an optimal abra-
AWJC. Based on the response Table 6, from grey relational grade sive cutting parameter based on the predicted parameter and its
and Fig. 4, it was observed that the prediction of the optimal respective outputs were analyzed is listed in Table 7. The confirma-
parameter is analyzed and the value observed was 0.583. (See tion experiment is done from the predicted input parameter.
Fig. 5).

Fig. 5. Response graph for AA7075 GRA.

Please cite this article as: C. Joel and T. Jeyapoovan, Optimization of machinability parameters in abrasive water jet machining of AA7075 using Grey-Tagu-
chi method, Materials Today: Proceedings, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2020.05.741
 C. Joel, T. Jeyapoovan / Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx
Table 9
Multi-Objective Optimization results in AA7075 using GRA.
Parameter Input Abrasive Feed Rate (g/min) Stand-Off Distance (mm)
Parameters
Initial A1B2C1 250 3 28
Predicted A1B2C2 250 3 36
It was found with minimization in surface roughness of 5.64 Ra
and maximization of material removal rate 0.1216 g/sec and hard-
ness 185.64 BHN. The grey relational grade observed in validation
experiment is found at 0.612 with an improvement of 1.03% from
its predicted grade value. Using ANOVA, the most significant factor
is analysed and presented in Table 8. The parameter with an abra-
sive feed of 46.52% shows a major contribution in abrasive cutting
operation and second-highest influencing factor shows in nozzle
speed with 36.76% and stand-off distance of 15.05%.
In AA7075, an optimal parameter is predicted based on
response analysis from the grey relational analysis. The confirma-
tion experiment was done and compared with initial grade value
and found to be 0.612 with the A1, B2 and C2 combinations as listed
in Table 9. The cutting parameter with minimize in surface rough-
ness and maximize in MRR and hardness is achieved with 250 g/
min abrasive feed rate, 3 mm stand-off distance and 36 mm/min
nozzle speed.
Based on the optimized results analyzed from grey relational
analysis, less abrasive feed rate and nozzle speed are better for
effective cutting on these materials overviewed. Also, for the most
influencing in cutting parameter concerned, abrasive feed rate and
stand-off distance influences a major role in satisfying the mini-
mization and maximization for evaluating the outputs such as
material removal rate, hardness and surface roughness.
6. Conclusion
The new Grey-Taguchi method has been adopted for investiga-
tion of AWJ machining parameters for AA7075. The optimal
machining parameters have been determined by the GRA grade
for the multi-response parameter that is MRR, HD and SR. Fifteen
experiments were conducted and analysed for the better
performance.
 The cutting parameter with minimize in surface roughness and
maximize in MRR and hardness is achieved with 250 g/min
abrasive feed rate, 3 mm stand-off distance and 36 mm/min
nozzle speed.
 The grey relational grade observed in confirmation experiment
is found at 0.612 with an improvement of 1.03% from its pre-
dicted grade value
 The parameter with an abrasive feed rate of 46.52% shows a
major contribution in abrasive cutting operation and second-
highest influencing factor shows in nozzle speed with 36.76%
and stand-off distance of 15.05%.
 It was found with minimization in surface roughness of 5.64 Ra
and maximization of material removal rate 0.1216 g/sec and
hardness 185.64 BHN.
Please cite this article as: C. Joel and T. Jeyapoovan, Optimization of machinability parameters in abrasive water jet machining of AA7075 using Grey-Tagu-
chi method, Materials Today: Proceedings, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2020.05.741
5
Nozzle Speed (mm/min) MRR (g/sec) SR (Ra) Hardness Grade
(BHN)
0.1298 5.68 193 0.784
0.1216 5.64 186 0.612
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.
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