Computational Machining of Titanium Alloy—Finite Element Modeling and a Few Results

Abstract

A Finite element modeling was developed for the computational machining of titanium alloy Ti-6Al-4V. The chip formation in metal cutting is one of the large deformation problems, thus, in the formulation of the elastic-plastic deformation analysis, geometrical nonlinearity due to the large shape change of the finite elements was taken into account and the over-constraint of incompressibility on the deformation of ordinary finite elements in the plastic range was relaxed to make the elements deformable as a real continuum. A ductile fracture criterion on the basis of strain, strain rate, hydrostatic pressure and temperature was applied to the crack growth during the chip segmentation. The temperature field in the flowing chip and workpiece and the fixed tool was calculated simultaneously by an unsteady state thermal conduction analysis and the remeshing of tool elements. The serrated chips predicted by the computational machining showed striking resemblances in the shape and irregular pitch of those obtained by actual cutting. The mean cutting forces and the amplitude of cutting force vibration in the computational machining were in good agreement with those in the actual machining.