Experimental and numerical study on abrasive water jet machining of laminated glass

The use of laminated glass (LG) is growing in structural applications. The conventional methods used to cut LG involve cutting glasses and interlayer separately and, thus, are less productive. The present work reports the use of abrasive water jet machining (AWJM) for LG cutting for the first time in the open literature. The statistical methods have determined the optimum process parameters of AWJM for the LG cutting. The boundaries of LG sample cut using conventional method and AWJM are examined using atomic force microscopy (AFM). Three-point bending tests have highlighted the superiority in the load-bearing ability and fracture pattern for LG samples cut by AWJM. A finite element (FE) model formed using an explicit dynamic module of ANSYS has explored the experimental findings. The FE model has predicted the stresses and strain for the glass and polyvinyl butyral (PVB) interlayer due to the strike of single SiC abrasive particles. The findings should be useful for the practical guidance to both the academic community and industry.