Abstract
Characteristics of internal microstructures have a strong impact on the properties of particulate reinforced metal composites. In the present work, we perform finite element simulations to elucidate fundamental mechanisms involved in the ultra-precision orthogonal cutting of aluminum-based silicon carbide composites (SiCp/Al), with an emphasis on the influence of particle distribution characteristic. The SiCp/Al composite with a particle volume fraction of 25 vol% and a mean particle size of 10 μm consists of randomly distributed polygon-shaped SiC particles, the elastic deformation and brittle failure of which are described by the brittle cracking model. Simulation results reveal that in addition to metal matrix tearing, cutting-induced particle deformation in terms of dislodging, debonding, and cracking plays an important role in the microscopic deformation and correlated machining force variation and machined surface integrity. It is found that the standard deviation of particle size to the mean value has a strong influence on the machinability of microscopic particle–tool edge interactions and macroscopically observed machining results. The present work provides a guideline for the rational synthesis of particulate-reinforced metal composites with high machinability.
Highlights
Aluminum-based silicon carbide composites (SiCp/Al) have been widely used in the aerospace, automotive, machinery, and electronics industries for their unique physical and mechanical properties [1,2,3]
SiC particles, the particle–tool edge interactions can be categorized into three scenarios: the tool edge is above particles 2 and 6, the tool edge traverses particles 4 and 5, and tool edge is below particles 1 and 3
We investigate the machinability of SiCp/Al composites in ultra-precision diamond cutting by 2D finite element (FE) modeling and simulation
Summary
Aluminum-based silicon carbide composites (SiCp/Al) have been widely used in the aerospace, automotive, machinery, and electronics industries for their unique physical and mechanical properties [1,2,3]. While mechanical machining is normally required to achieve desired shapes with considerable accuracy, recently cutting technique has been proposed to process SiCp/Al composites for its high geometrical accuracy and high efficiency [4]. The machinability of SiCp/Al composites is greatly affected by intrinsic material parameters such as size and volume fraction of SiC particles. A thorough understanding of the influences of geometrical parameters of SiC particles on the machining of SiCp/Al is required. Teng et al performed cutting experiments of micro- and nano-particle-reinforced SiCp/Al composites. They found that nanoparticles are less likely to break and more likely to form continuous chips during cutting processes than microparticles, which are easy to break and tend to form discontinues chips. A better machined surface quality can be obtained from nanoparticle-reinforced metal
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