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A Study of Thermal Cutting of Glass
Author(s) -
Muralidhar Seshadri,
Pal Sanjeeb,
Jagota Anand,
Kale Sunil R.,
Mittal Ramesh K.
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
journal of the american ceramic society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.9
H-Index - 196
eISSN - 1551-2916
pISSN - 0002-7820
DOI - 10.1111/j.1151-2916.1999.tb02058.x
Subject(s) - dimensionless quantity , materials science , nozzle , jet (fluid) , thermal , mechanics , flat glass , heat transfer , intensity (physics) , stress (linguistics) , composite material , mechanical engineering , optics , thermodynamics , engineering , physics , linguistics , philosophy
Thermal stresses due to a hot‐air jet impinging on a glass sheet can be used to stably initiate and attract a crack toward the jet axis. Relative motion between the jet and glass sheet then can be used to cut the glass sheet. This paper presents a theoretical and experimental study of this process for straight cuts. The model consists of sequentially coupled thermal and stress analyses for different cutting velocities. The stress field is used to compute stress‐intensity factors for different assumed positions of a crack behind the moving air jet. The minimum air temperature for cutting and the stand‐off distance of the crack behind the nozzle increase as the cutting velocity increases. The various process and material parameters that control the process‐including cutting speed, air temperature, and sheet thickness‐are reduced to dimensionless numbers. Theoretical results, presented as a map in the space of these dimensionless numbers, describe the conditions under which cutting is possible. An experimental cutting apparatus has been constructed and used to validate the heat‐transfer analyses. Cutting experiments on this apparatus are in good agreement with the model.