Thermo Mechanical Loads in Ti-6Al-4V Machining

Abstract

In recent years titanium alloys demand has increased considerably. Although many progresses have been made during the last years, machining titanium alloys still is considered as quite challenging. This paper shows the results of the fundamental research carried out to understand the thermochemical loads when machining Ti-6Al-4V. A comparative study of empirical and modelling results is carried out on cutting forces and temperatures in orthogonal conditions. Empirical cutting forces are obtained with a piezoelectric sensor while the temperature fields are obtained with an infrared camera. The commercial software AdvantEdge (finite element modelling) is employed to obtain temperature and forces. In 3D, analytical modelling based on energy approach is used to estimate cutting forces while finite difference method is employed to obtain temperature fields. Results show a good correlation among all the approaches.