Effect of the third-body particles on the tool–chip contact and tool-wear behaviour during dry cutting of aeronautical titanium alloys

Abstract

In machining process, a major limitation of the tool life is due to wear phenomena that occur at the tool–chip interface. Wear influences the surface quality and dimensional accuracy of the finished product by degrading the shape and efficiency of the tool cutting edge. The basic mechanisms of wear are controlled by the mechanical and physico-chemical properties of the tool and workpiece materials. The cutting conditions such as the cutting speed, the feed rate, and the tool geometry also have an important effect on the tool-wear behaviour. Several basic causes of tool wear have been previously investigated; some of the most important are: abrasion and adhesion wear. During the chip formation, particles are removed from the tool and/or the chip surface and are carried away by the flow of the work material along the contact. It is very hard to understand physical phenomena at the tool–chip interface using only experimental means since the contact between the tool and the machined material occurs under extreme mechanical and thermal loading. The situation is more complicated by the presence of the third body, which generates different wear mechanisms. In the present work, the discrete element method (DEM) based on molecular dynamics is used as a helpful tool to understand the behaviour of the third-body particles and their interactions with the tool and workpiece materials in the contact. Both tool and chip materials are defined as discrete particles connected by solid joints. The tool material (first body) is assumed to be degradable granular material and flows along the second material under a combination of pressure and sliding velocity. A parametric study on the transient phenomenon of the tool degradation has been carried out according to the contact conditions, which strongly depend on the machining parameters. The results show that the tribological parameters can be qualitatively evaluated by conducting both calibration–cutting experiments and DEM simulations.