Abstract
Abstract. This study presents experimental and numerical investigation on the effectiveness of electrode geometry on flushing and debris removal in Electrical Discharge Drilling (EDD) process. A new electrode geometry, namely side-cut electrode, was designed and manufactured based on circular electrode geometry. Several drilling operations were performed on stainless steel 304 using rotary tubular electrodes with circular and side-cut geometries. Drilling performance was characterized by Material Removal Rate (MRR), Electrode Wear Rate (EWR), and Tool Wear Ratio (TWR). Dimensional features and surface quality of drilled holes were evaluated based on Overcut (OC), Hole Depth (HD), and Surface Roughness (SR). Three-dimensional three-phase CFD models were built using ANSYS FLUENT software to simulate the flow field at interelectrode gap. Results revealed that the overall performance of side-cut electrode was superior due to improved erosion rates and flushing capabilities, resulting in production of deep holes with good dimensional accuracy and surface quality.
Highlights
Electrical Discharge Drilling (EDD) is an electro-thermal process used for drilling small holes on electrically conductive materials
Higher Material Removal Rate (MRR) value refers to greater amount of material removal per unit time
It is observed that MRR values for side-cut electrode are not diminished after specific hole depth whereas material removal by circular electrode becomes lesser with increasing the depth
Summary
Electrical Discharge Drilling (EDD) is an electro-thermal process used for drilling small holes on electrically conductive materials It is based on the eroding effect of electric sparks occurring between tool electrode and workpiece (Bozdana and Ulutas, 2016). Drilling operations are conducted by tubular electrodes through which the dielectric fluid is flowing for washing the debris away from the machining zone. Xie et al (2015a) presented 2-D flow model in ultrasonically assisted EDM process using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). Their model involved phases of kerosene dielectric and debris at bottom and side regions of interelectrode gap. In the study of Xie et al (2015b), 2-D model of flow field in ultrasonic assisted EDM was constructed with liquid and debris phases. Numerical analyses were carried out based on 3-D three-phase CFD models for simulation of flushing capabilities of electrodes
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