Experimental investigation of the distribution patterns of micro-scratches in abrasive waterjet cutting surface

The existence of striations, and scratches in Abrasive waterjet (AWJ) cutting surface necessitates an exploration of these features for enhancing the cutting accuracy of AWJ machining. This article investigates surface roughness and micro-scratch morphology characteristics on brass cutting surfaces. According to the variation law of surface roughness values, the cutting section can be divided into three regions: the initial region, smooth region, and rough region. Numerous micron-scale scratches were observed in the cutting section. The scratch length, width, and depth values all show an increasing trend as the cutting depth increases, with the scratch length experiencing the greatest growth and variability. The influence of position and traverse speed on scratch size was studied using variance analysis. Furthermore, the length and width of the scratches on the cutting surface are significantly influenced by their position, accounting for 89.19% and 81.13%, respectively. Traverse speed had a minor effect on scratch length and width, accounting for 0.01% and 2.64% respectively. The depth of the scratches is influenced by their position on the cutting surface at a rate of 41.12%, while traverse speed had an impact of 38.10%. Finally, a mathematical method based on standard scores was proposed to assess the quality of the cutting section based on micro-scratch dimension.