Investigation of surface topography in ultrasonic-assisted turning of C45 carbon steel

Abstract

This study compares ultrasonic-assisted turning to conventional turning in terms of their effects on surface texture and cutting forces during the machining of C45 carbon steel. Experiments were conducted on a lathe equipped with a 1000 W ultrasonic generator running at 20 kHz. Ultrasonic-assisted turning results in small, evenly distributed spherical scratches on the workpiece, while conventional turning leads to long, uneven cutting marks. Significantly, ultrasonic-assisted turning achieves a notably smoother surface finish than conventional turning. As the depth of cut increases, conventional turning causes increasingly uneven surface topography, whereas ultrasonic-assisted turning maintains surface stability and uniformity. Moreover, cutting forces see a substantial rise of approximately 40% with conventional turning as the depth of cut increases. In contrast, ultrasonic-assisted turning witnesses a marginal force increase of about 15.84%.