Experimental investigation and finite element simulation of AISI 304 during electro discharge machining

Abstract

In this paper, a two-dimensional axisymmetric thermal model using finite element method (FEM) has been established for predicting the temperature distribution profile on the work piece during electro discharge machining (EDM) and obtained material removal rate (MRR) from the temperature isotherm. For prediction of MRR, the model utilizes some important features viz. size and shape of the heat source (Gaussian heat distribution), thermal properties of workpiece, amount of heat distribution among the dielectric fluid, workpiece and tool, material flushing efficiency and pulse off/on time, etc. ANSYS software was used for developing the thermal model for the single spark operation. For this investigation, AISI 304 stainless steel and tungsten carbide was used as workpiece and electrode material, respectively. A comparison study has been carried out for theoretical and experimental MRR for the effect of each process parameter viz. gap voltage, pulse on time and peak current. The temperature distribution along the radial and depth direction of the workpiece has been reported. The model was validated by comparing the theoretical MRR with the experimental MRR and found a good correlation between them.