Experimental research on waterjet street surface cleaning

Using pure waterjets for cleaning street surfaces is very important for road maintenance and vehicle protection. It is also relevant to environmental protection. Commonly, street surfaces are cleaned by fan-shaped waterjets and many parameters can influence the effectiveness of the cleaning. To date, there has been a dearth of research into this subject. The study of the relationship between the parameters and the results is the basis for optimising these parameters to obtain the best cleaning effectiveness, productivity and energy consumption. This paper reports on a series of experiments conducted to study the correlation between cleaning rate and cleaning parameters of pressure p, traverse rate ν, standoff distance and nozzle installation angle. It is found that the cleaning rate is proportional to p3 and ν^−0·5. At the same time, there was a critical standoff distance where the cleaning rate and average clean width could reach the maximum value; the cleaning rate could reach the maximum value when the installation angle was near 40°.