A Fracture Mechanics Approach to the Prediction of Tool Wear in Dry High Speed Machining of Aluminum Cast Alloys—Part 2: Model Calibration and Verification

Abstract

Background. Aluminum alloys are extensively used in the automotive industry and their utilization continues to rise because of the environmental, safety and driving performance advantages. Experimental study has been carried out in this work to establish the effect of cutting conditions (speed, feed, and depth of cut) on the cutting forces and time variation of carbide tool wear data in high-speed machining (face milling) of Al–Si cast alloys that are commonly used in the automotive industry. Method and Approach. The experimental setup and force measurement system are described. The cutting test results are used to calibrate and validate the fracture mechanics-based tool wear model developed in part 1 of this work. The model calibration is conducted for two combinations of cutting speed and a feed rate, which represent a lower and upper limit of the range of cutting conditions. The calibrated model is then validated for a wide range of cutting conditions. This validation is performed by comparing the experimental tool wear data with the tool wear predicted by calibrated cutting tool wear model. Results and Conclusions. The maximum prediction error was found to be 14.5%, demonstrating the accuracy of the object oriented finite element (OOFE) modeling of the crack propagation process in the cobalt binder. It also demonstrates its capability in capturing the physics of the wear process. This is attributed to the fact that the OOF model incorporates the real microstructure of the tool material. The model can be readily extended to any microstructure of Al–Si workpiece and carbide cutting tool material.