Erosion analysis and experimental research of gas-liquid-solid soft abrasive flow polishing based on cavitation effects

Traditional soft abrasive flow (SAF) polishing is limited by its low material removal rate and its applicability to large workpieces. To address this issue, an innovative technique of a cavitation-based gas-liquid-solid abrasive flow polishing (CGLSP) process is proposed. The energy generated from cavitation effects is employed to increase the kinetic energy of abrasive particles in the fluid flow and the random movement of abrasive particles near the surface. The CGLSP mechanism is first introduced, and then, the cavitation erosion characteristics and material removal mechanism of brittle-plastic materials during polishing are investigated using a coupling computational fluid dynamics model. The simulated results show that erosion of the workpiece surface mainly occurs in the spiral area of the polishing tool. Furthermore, the erosion rate and erosion depth increase with increasing cavitation intensity. Subsequently, polishing experiments are conducted to verify the validity of the CGLSP method. The polishing results are verified by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images of the polished surface. After polishing with the CGLSP method, most of the surface irregularities, such as microcracks and massive structures, are removed. The experimental results demonstrate that controlled polishing with cavitation erosion and abrasion can achieve a much higher quality surface on a large workpiece.