Efficient modeling of material dissolution in electrochemical machining

Abstract

AbstractThe manufacturing process of electrochemical machining (ECM) allows for the precise machining of high‐strength materials. In order to save time and reduce experimental costs, one depends on efficient simulation tools. Numerous modeling approaches consider the anodic material dissolution in ECM based on a high resolution of the material (see e.g. [2], [3]). However, these models require computationally expensive remeshing after every time step. Therefore, we propose a novel approach that describes the dissolution process based on effective material parameters (see [5]). Faraday's law of electrolysis provides the evolution of the dissolution level which is described by an internal variable that relates the dissolved volume to a reference volume. The dissolution level in turn controls the effective material parameters. This procedure allows for the simulation of the entire process with a fixed finite element mesh. Moreover, the model considers the full coupling of the thermoelectric boundary value problem to accurately account for the electric current density distribution. The comparison of the model with analytical and experimental reference solutions yields realistic results and, hence, motivates the model's application to predict the surface roughness evolution in a pulsed electrochemical machining process.