No abstract

During machining of hard materials, one approach to reduce tool wear is using a laser beam to preheat the material in front of the cutting zone. In this study, a new concept of laser-assisted milling with spindle and tool integrated laser beam guiding has been tested. The laser beam is located at the cutting edge and moving synchronously with the cutter. In experiment, a reduction in the resulting process cutting forces and tool wear has been observed in comparison to milling without laser. A three-dimensional finite element model in DEFORM 3D was developed to predict the cutting forces in the milling process with and without an additional laser heat source, based on a Johnson-Cook-type material constitutive model adapted for high strains and strain rates. Both in experiment and simulation, the deformation behavior of a Ti-6Al-4V workpiece has been investigated. The comparison of the resulting cutting forces showed very good agreement. Thus the new model has great potential to further optimize laser assisted machining processes.

A reproduction of the conditions occurring during friction stir processing, where a fine grained structure according to the process parameters rpm, transverse speed and pressure develops is the main focus in the present work. To physically simulate such a friction stir process, hot torsion tests at constant temperatures were carried out in a Gleeble ® 3800 machine at different strains and strain rates. The specimens were immediately water quenched after hot deformation to avoid any static recrystallization. The microstructure was investigated to characterize the grain size evolution and misorientation as a function of the local strain, strain rate and temperature. Dynamic recovery was observed followed by continuous dynamic recrystallization at large deformations. By means of DEFORMTM3D the occurring strain, strain rate and temperature distributions, which are decisive for the observed microstructure evolution, were evaluated.

Gamma titanium aluminides are promising alloys for low-pressure turbine blades. A significant disadvantage of such intermetallic alloys is failure induced during forming processes due to ductile damage and flow instabilities. Previous investigations on a gamma titanium aluminide alloy (TNM), have shown ductile damage due to tensile stress components and instabilities such as shear bands, pores and micro-cracks at low temperatures and high strain rates. The main part of the current work is to delineate damage and unstable regions in the low temperature region. Hot deformation experiments are conducted on a Gleeble®3800 thermomechanical treatment simulator to obtain flow curves to be implemented in a finite element method (FEM) code. Instabilities in the material are described by existing instability criteria as proposed by Semiatin and Jonas and implemented into FEM code DEFORMTM 2D. Predictions of ductile damage models and the instability parameter are validated through detailed microstructural studies of deformed specimens analysed by light optical- and scanning electron microscopy.