Experimental and numerical studies on chip formation mechanism and working performance of the milling tool with single abrasive grain

Abstract

It is a wildly accepted approach to study the working mechanism of the single abrasive grain by experiment and numerical simulation to improve the working performance of the milling tool in the development of unconventional oil and gas resources. In this study, a mechanical analysis model and a 2D numerical simulation model of single abrasive grain were established to analyze the working mechanism of the milling tool. Then a milling tool with single abrasive grain and an experimental system for milling tools were developed to verify the numerical results. Also, the working process was recorded by a high-speed camera to analyze the chip formation mechanism and the thermal field was obtained by the 2D numerical simulation model to improve service life. Besides, the influence of different working parameters including weight on bit (WOB) and rotating speed was conducted to improve efficiency and safety of the milling tool. Study results indicate that the error between simulation and experiment is within 7.43%, which verifies the accuracy of the 2D numerical simulation model. Both the chips of simulation and experiment are jagged chips without cooling and the error of the chip morphology is only 5.88%. The temperature on the cutting edge increased faster than other positions with some fluctuation while that on the rake face reached a peak at 658.5 °C with some fluctuation. These studies are significant for the design and application of the milling tool with high performance.