Proceedings of the
9th International Conference of Asian Society for Precision Engineering and Nanotechnology (ASPEN2022)
15 – 18 November 2022, Singapore
doi:10.3850/978-981-18-6021-8_OR-09-0255
Numerical Investigation of heat penetration on cutting force during laser assisted machining of Ti6Al4V
1Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Ahalia Integrated Campus, Kozhippara, Kerala 678557
ABSTRACT
The applications of superalloys like Ti6Al4V have rapidly increased over the years in aerospace, biomedical and chemical industries. This is attributed to the exceptional physical and mechanical properties like high melting point, retention of properties at elevated temperatures and high toughness. Nevertheless, these properties pose challenges in processing Ti6Al4V by conventional machining methods. Laser assisted machining (LAM) is one of the hybrid machining processes which is employed to overcome these challenges. During LAM, the phenomenon of material softening at elevated temperatures results in reduction of the cutting force which consequently leads to lower specific energy consumption. Owing to the dynamic and non-linear nature of the machining processes, the numerical simulation of these processes becomes complex. In case of laser assisted machining, the complexity of the simulation increases further because of the interdependence of the laser parameters and the mechanism of material removal. A numerical model is proposed in this study to predict the cutting force at different feed rates keeping the laser heat flux and cutting speed constant. The thermal softening effect is modeled using the Johnson-Cook material constitutive equations. A significant reduction in cutting force was observed due to laser assistance and the penetration depth condition with respect to uncut chip thickness for minimum cutting force has been identified and elaborated.
Keywords: Laser assisted machining, Cutting force, Ti6Al4V
1Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Ahalia Integrated Campus, Kozhippara, Kerala 678557
ABSTRACT
The applications of superalloys like Ti6Al4V have rapidly increased over the years in aerospace, biomedical and chemical industries. This is attributed to the exceptional physical and mechanical properties like high melting point, retention of properties at elevated temperatures and high toughness. Nevertheless, these properties pose challenges in processing Ti6Al4V by conventional machining methods. Laser assisted machining (LAM) is one of the hybrid machining processes which is employed to overcome these challenges. During LAM, the phenomenon of material softening at elevated temperatures results in reduction of the cutting force which consequently leads to lower specific energy consumption. Owing to the dynamic and non-linear nature of the machining processes, the numerical simulation of these processes becomes complex. In case of laser assisted machining, the complexity of the simulation increases further because of the interdependence of the laser parameters and the mechanism of material removal. A numerical model is proposed in this study to predict the cutting force at different feed rates keeping the laser heat flux and cutting speed constant. The thermal softening effect is modeled using the Johnson-Cook material constitutive equations. A significant reduction in cutting force was observed due to laser assistance and the penetration depth condition with respect to uncut chip thickness for minimum cutting force has been identified and elaborated.
Keywords: Laser assisted machining, Cutting force, Ti6Al4V
