Laboratory for Manufacturing and Sustainability

We developed computer-aided planning tools for waterjet cleaning processes incorporating experimental results. We designed experiments to determine the influence of key waterjet parameters on cleaning effect and devised a computer-aided visualization and optimization scheme incorporating these parameters. In addition, we developed a particle dynamics model to simulate local waterjet interaction with target surfaces. Finally, we developed a model to predict water traps inside the workpieces based on layered volume segmentation. Our tools will aid designers and process planners in achieving efficient cleaning of geometrically complex workpieces in a high volume manufacturing environment.