Abstract：To improve the efficiency in waterjet crushing of tire rubber, a crushing experiment with different waterjet parameters was conducted.The response surface model of relation between the crushing efficiency and waterjet parameters was established. The results show that there exists an interaction between different waterjet parameters. The influence of target distance and nozzle moving speed on crushing efficiency increases with the increase of the pump pressure, and the influence of pump pressure increases with the increase of moving speed of nozzle. The waterjet parameters are limited to pump pressure from 140 to 270 MPa, target distance from 10 to 80 mm, and nozzle moving speed from 500 to 1500 mm/min. The maximum crushing efficiency within this range of parameters is 7.54 g/min. The results of the verification tests are in agreement with the predicted values of the model. The obtained rubber powders contain no impurity, the average diameter of rubber powders is sufficiently small and has effect of desulfurization, which can meet the needs of reuse.

Keywords: waterjet; crushing efficiency; response surface; optimization