Analysis of flow field for electrochemical machining metal screw pump stator

Abstract

The electrochemical machining (ECM) is used to solve the difficult machining problem of metal screw pump stator inner hole; the mathematical model of electrolyte flow field in machining gap is established, and the distribution of electrolyte flow field in ECM machining gap of processing screw pump stator inner hole is simulated by using COMSOL simulation software. The simulation results show that, at the end of the machining gap, the electrolyte is not full, therefore setting up the added liquid hole on the cathode working zone by optimizing the cathode structure in the relevant machining gap zone to improve the distribution of flow field. Finally, the experiments are carried out which were conducted with different voltage and feed rate parameters; the test piece is sliced and measure it after the experiments, based on the measurement results to adjust the process parameters. The experiments result show that, when the processing voltage is 16 V and the feed rate is 6 mm/min, the distribution of electrolyte flow field in machining gap is more uniform, and the test piece size reached the product requirements. The simulation greatly shorten the cathode design cycle and optimize the structure of cathode by using COMSOL.