A novel approach for predicting the complex geometry generated by electrochemical jet machining

Electrochemical jet machining (EJM) is an attractive micromachining and surface modification method due to its distinct merits. The prediction of machined geometries is a crucial aspect in the advancement and application of EJM. However, this task remains challenging for the currently available approaches. In this work, an efficient and simple analytic approach for predicting the complicated geometries generated by EJM is introduced. Predictions and experiments are carried out on typical EJM operations to test the efficacy of the proposed approach. The predicted geometries exhibit maximum deviations of 2.6, 11.8, and 22.1 μm in machining of grooves, shaped surfaces, and a pyramid cavity, respectively. The relative errors in predicting these EJM processes are below 21%, 15%, and 4%, respectively. The observed strong correlation between the predicted and experimental results confirms the validity of the proposed approach. Moreover, it is notable that the computational time required for all predictions is minimal, typically taking only a few seconds even when utilizing an ordinary computer, which highlights the feasibility of integrating the proposed approach into the computer program of an EJM machine. In addition, combining the proposed approach with finite element simulation to realize through-process numerical prediction is also demonstrated.