Visualization Of Thermal Distribution During Machining of Dental Implants

Abstract

Dental implants used are usually metallic. One of the most widely used materials for the same is Titanium-based alloy like Ti-6Al-4V, which suffers difficulty processing and machining due to its thermo-physical properties. The thermo-physical property of the material plays a significant role in the biocompatibility and safety to use them as dental implants. Due to its hardness and difficult-to-machine characteristics, a large amount of heat gets generated while machining, creating dimensional error. Hence before assembly of parts, they must be processed so that stress deformation of the assembly due to heat can be avoided. During machining of Ti-6Al-4V, the cooling strategy needs prior information on the thermal field, and hence, the distribution of temperature in the material is an essential domain to study. To understand the thermal distribution in the material during machining, 3-dimensional heat diffusion equations have been solved using a Finite Difference scheme coupled with the Liebmann method to generate the thermal distribution in the material. An efficient parallelized code for the same has been written in MATLAB and utilized in this numerical study. This study reveals the variation of the temperature gradient with time and space, all along with the three orthogonal directions, which will be helpful for the scientists, engineers, and surgeons to ascertain the sustainability [1, 2], suitability, and longevity of the implants.