A novel pulse shortcut strategy for simulating nano-second pulse electrochemical micro-machining

Abstract

Nano-second pulse electrochemical micro-machining is essentially employed in high precision metal processing applications. Simulation wise, such a process involves heavy time-accurate calculations necessary to obtain the confined anodic current density distribution, crucial for the machining copy accuracy. A new alternative simulation method is presented, entitled the Pulse Shortcut Strategy (PSS), that avoids the entire time-accurate procedure and significantly reduces the computational effort and runtime. The PSS relies on calculating a current density Correction Factor (CF) that is based on the local electrolyte resistance, the interface polarization and double layer (DL) properties in combination with the nano-second pulse characteristics. The same confining effect is achieved by simulating a computationally cheap stationary current density distribution and altering it locally through the space-dependent CF. When the system has constant electrolyte resistivity, constant DL capacitance and linear polarization, the CF calculation reacts in full agreement with the time-accurate simulation results for any pulse on-time/off-time combination. The PSS accuracy is compared with full time-accurate simulations and represents a mutual validation method between the two. These results offer promising perspectives for the simulation of nano-second pulse electrochemical micro-machining, making it more attractive from a practical point of view once the general interest in the technology emerges. The approach can be generalized to other pulsating electrochemical systems.