3D numerical simulation of drilling residual stresses

Abstract

Drilling can affect the integrity of the surface of a mechanical component and reduce its fatigue life. Thus, drilling parameters such as lubrication or drilling velocity must be optimized to ensure a satisfactory residual mechanical state of the hole surfaces. Unfortunately, experimental tests are time consuming and it is not easy to observe the cutting process because of the confinement of the drill zone. The literature does not exhibit any numerical simulation capable of simulating 3D thermomechanical phenomena in the drill zone for large depth holes. Therefore, residual stresses cannot be easily simulated by means of the sole drilling parameters. The aim of this article is to propose a new numerical approach to compute drilling residual stresses for large-depth holes. A first simulation is developed to simulate heat transfer by means of a 3D thermoviscoplastic simulation in a new Rigid-ALE framework allowing the use of large calculation time steps. Then, a time interpolation and a spatial projection are implemented to rebuild the Lagrangian thermal history of the machined component. Finally, a thermo-elastoplastic simulation is carried out to compute residual stresses in the final workpiece. In this paper, the method is applied to a 316L austenitic stainless steel in the case of an unlubricated hole. The computed residual stresses are compared to experimental measurements.