Effects of cutting edge radius in vibration assisted micro machining

Abstract

It is important for vibration-assisted machining (VAM) to incorporate the cutting edge radius (re) at microscale machining to understand the tool-workpiece contact relationship and the underlying cutting mechanism. re is absent so far in the analysis of VAM conducted by various researchers. It is difficult to understand the tool edge contact mechanism with the workpiece at microscale cutting simply by theoretical or mathematical analysis. Hence, the contact phenomenon for both 1D and 2D VAM has been investigated through finite element (FE) simulation using the Coupled Eulerian-Lagrangian (CEL) approach. Practical experiments with varying re are conducted to verify the observations. The chip thickness increases in 1D VAM with increased re which remains unchanged in 2D VAM. Although the cutting force increases at a different rate for both 1D and 2D VAM, the thrust force is significantly higher in 2D VAM. Ploughing increases significantly in 2D VAM than 1D VAM. The workpiece surface improves in 2D VAM whereas the change is very little in 1D VAM. The experimental findings with varying re support the FE simulation model of contact relationship and evaluate the cutting performance with re in both 1D and 2D VAM.