In order to improve the material removal rate of abrasive water jet(AWJ),a simulation model of AWJ penetrating 18CrNiMo7-6 target was established by using ABAQUS software,and the changes of craters on the target surface were observed and analyzed in the process of AWJ penetration.At the same time,the influences of particle initial velocity,particle diameter,particle density and incident angle on the shape and size of craters were investigated,and the jet process parameters were optimized according to the material removal volume.The results show that the crater depth and material removal volume increase with the increase of the initial particle velocity,particle diameter,particle density and incident angle; the crater width first increases with the increase of the initial particle velocity and particle density and then remains at the maximum width; the crater width increases with the increase of the particle diameter and decreases with the increase of the incident angle.Taking the maximum material removal volume as the goal,the optimal parameters are as follows:the initial particle velocity is 400 m/s,the particle density is 12 000 kg/m3,the particle incident angle is 90°,and the particle diameter is 1 mm.