5th International & 26th All India Manufacturing Technology, Design and Research Conference (AIMTDR 2014) December

12th–14th, 2014, IIT

Guwahati, Assam, India

Finite Element Modeling for Prediction of Cutting Forces during Micro

Turning of Titanium Alloy

Jagadesh T1 , Samuel G L2*

1
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Madras,
Chennai, India, 600036,
1
E-Mail: [email protected], 2Email: [email protected]

Abstract
Micromachining of industrial products, is playing an important role in manufacturing of axi-symmetricminiaturized
parts especially in biomedical and aerospace applications.This paper presents the development of 3D oblique finite
element modeling for prediction of cutting forces, thrust force, feed force, and tool chip interface temperatureduring
micro turning process. Titanium alloy (Ti6Al4V) and Coated carbide tool (TiN/AlTiN) is considered as work and
tool material respectively.Johnson- Cook material model with strain gradient plasticity is used to represent the flow
stress of the work material. When uncut chip thickness is equal to or less than the edge radius, thrust force is
dominant over the cutting force due to rubbing and ploughing action. When cutting speed increases there is decrease
in cutting force due to thermal softening effect. When depth of cut and uncutchip thickness is less than edge radius
there is increase in specific cutting energy due to material strengthening effects. Tool chip interface temperature
increases by increasing the cutting speed.Simulated cutting force values are agree well with the experiment values.
Key words: FEM, Cutting forces, edge radius.

1. Introduction cBNcoated tool. Rao and

shunmugam(2012)developedanalytical model for the
Titanium alloyshave been widely used in prediction offorces in micro end milling process with
biomedical products due to superior properties such as consideration of edge radius and material strengthening
biocompatibility, high strength to weight ratio, and effects.Liu and melkote (2004)investigated material
corrosion resistance. Machining of titanium alloy is strengthening mechanisms and suggested that decrease
difficult due to low thermal conductivity, low elastic in secondary deformation zone temperature, and strain
modulus and high chemical reactivity with tool material gradient are the reason for material strengthening.
Yangand Liu (1999).Several researches have tried with Several researches investigated on Finite
different coated tools to minimize the tool wear and for element model (FEM) for macromachining of titanium
improving the accuracy of the componentOzelet al. alloy. Umbrello (2008)studied finite element simulation
(2010),Jaffery and Mativenga (2012). In the present of titanium alloy (Ti6Al4V) using three different John
paper, coated carbide insert (TiN/AlTiN) is being used Cook constitutive model parameters. Results suggested
as a tool to machine titanium alloy (Ti6Al4V). The that Lee and Lin (1998) parameters shows good
advantage of such coating is to reduce the friction and agreement of cutting force and chip morphology
adhesion between chip and cutting tool. In addition to withexperiments during conventional and high speed
that AlTiN has good oxidation resistance, wear machining.Sima and Ozel (2010)investigated strain
resistanceand high chemical stability at high softening, temperature dependent flow softening, and
temperatures due to the formation of Al2O3 film. flow softening at high strain values in modified John
The mechanism of material removal in Cook constitutive model. Results suggested that flow
micromachining is different from macro machining due softening at high strain values predicted accurately with
to size effect.Finite element model is used to predict the experiment values.Karpat (2011) analyzed temperature
cutting forces, tool wear in advance to eliminate dependent flow softening of Ti6Al4V using 2D FEM.
problem during actual machining process that leads Results suggested that flow softening occurs at 350 ° C
toreduce the experimentation cost.Woonet al. (2008) that is below the recrystallization temperature. Ti6Al4V
developed finite element model to predict the influence with different initial microstructures are needed to
of tool edge radius on tool chip contact length address this problem. Shao et al.(2010) developed finite
andcontact force.Ozelet al. (2011) investigated FEM for element model for prediction of cutting temperature and
prediction of forces, temperature and wear rate during tool wear depth considering thermodynamically
micro milling of titanium alloy with carbide and constitutive equation. Ozel (2009) investigated

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 Finite Element Modeling for Prediction of Cutting Forces during Micro Turning of Titanium Alloy

influence of micro edge geometry (chamfer insert, as rigid and workpiece is considered as viscoplastic
uniform hone insert, variable hone insert, waterfall hone material. To get the influence of edge radius a fine mesh
insert) on forces, stress, friction and tool wear in PcBN density is given at the tip of the tool is shown in figure
tool. Results suggested that variable micro geometry 2. The edge radius of the cutting insert is 15 µm is
insert has reduced tool wear, heat generation and less shown in figure 6.
plastic strain.

Most of the work done in the literature study is

2D and 3D orthogonal FEM for macro machining. To
get the actual cutting process, 3D oblique finite element
model has been developed in the present investigation.
Thereare very few investigations made so far on
simulation of micro turning of Titanium alloy. This
paper is essential to understand the mechanism of
material removal at the micro scale.

2. Methodology Fine mesh

2.1 Finite element model 0.2mm nose
radius
There are three formulations used in the finite element Figure 2 Geometry of insert with finite element mesh
model of machining process: Lagrangian, Eulerian, or
Arbitrary LagrangianEulerian. Material being removed
from the workpiece is exposed to severe plastic Minimum element size of the workpiece is 0.002mm
deformation and it causes distortion of elements during given in all simulation conditions. The shape of the
FEM simulation. Therefore mesh regeneration in the element is four node tetrahedron element. Figure 3
workpiece is needed. In addition this chip separation shows the simplified model of workpiece fixed at
criteria must be provided in Eulerian approach. To bottom portion in X,Y,and Z directions.In the present
overcome this problem, in this paper finite element study uncut chip thickness is assumed to be 10, 15, 20
simulation has been carried out by implicit Lagrangian microns. Figure 4 shows coating of AlTiN and TiN over
method in which the chip is formed by continuous carbide tool.
remeshing using DEFORM 3D software. Ozelet al.
(2011) studied the FEM of machining of inconel 718 by
using two different FE software. Results suggested that
predicted cutting forces, cutting temperature, strain, and
stress values are almost similar in both DEFORM 3D
and ABAQUS/Explicit.

Figure3 Workpiece fixed at bottom portion

95°

Figure 1 Oblique cutting

Figure 1 shows the oblique cutting where cutting edge is

inclined at 95° to the feed velocity. Tool is considered Figure 4 Coated carbide insert

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5th International & 26th All India Manufacturing Technology, Design and Research Conference (AIMTDR 2014) December 12th–14th, 2014, IIT
Guwahati, Assam, India

2.2 Material modeling Shear friction law and colulomb friction law are used to
 ∈&    T − To  
m represent the friction between tool and chip interface.
σ = ( A + B ∈n ) 1 + C ln  1 −    τ
 & 0    Tm − To  
∈ m= (2)
 
1/ 2
k
  
µ

    where,m = shear friction factor.
    (1) τ = frictional shear stress.
  18a 2 bG 2  
1 +  2   k = work material flow stress.
   &    T − To    
m
n  ∈ 
  L  ( A + B ∈ )  1 + C ln   1 −     A constant shear friction factor m = 0.95 is used in all
    ∈ & 0    Tm − To     
     simulation conditions Ozelet al. (2010).Table 1 shows
the thermo mechanical properties of tool and workpiece
material. The formula for calculating shear frictor is
where (A) yield strength of the material, (B) strain shown in Equation 2, and specific cutting energy is
hardening modulus, (C) strain rate sensitivity shown in Equation 3.
coefficient, (ɛ) plastic strain, (ߝሶ) strain rate, (ߝ଴ሶ )
Cutting tool
reference plastic strain rate, (T) Workpiece temperature,
(Tm)Melting temperature, (To) Room temperature, (m)
thermal softening coefficient, (n) Hardening coefficient, Edge
(G) shear modulus, (L) characteristic length in strain radius
gradient plasticity model, (b) magnitude of burger
vector, (a) constant. The optimized material constant for Saw tooth
John and cook model are; A = 782.7MPa, B = 498.MPa, chip
C = 0.028, m= 1, n = 0.28, To= 20°C, Tm= 1660°C.
formation
Modified Johnson–Cook material model with strain
gradient plasticity is used to represent the flow stress of
the work material as shown in Equation 1 Shen and Workpiece
Ding (2013).
Figure 6 Finite element model

Fc × Vc
Specific cutting energy =
DOC × Vc × f
(3)

Fc = Cutting force, N
Vc = Cutting speed, m/min
DOC= Depth of cut, µm
f = feed, µm/rev

Table 1.Mechanical and thermal properties of tool

and work material.
Property Ti6Al4V WC- AlTi TiN
Co N
Figure 5 Variation of flow stress with strain at Youngs (0.7412* 5.e5 560e3 251e3
various temperatures modulus, T)+113375
Mpa
Thermal 7.039e0.0011* 0.042 0.008 0.008*
Figure 5 shows the variation of flow stress with strain conductivi T
*T+ 1*T T+
at various temperatures. Figure 6 shows the 3D oblique ty 36 +11.9 19.8
model of tool and workpiece along with the chip formed Wm-1°C-1 5
during oblique finite element cutting model. The reason Thermal 3.10-9*T+ 4.7e-6 9.4e-6 9.4e-6
for the saw tooth chip formation in machining of expansion 7.10-6
titanium alloy is due to adiabatic shear sensitivity Wan mm mm-
et al.(2012). 1° -1
C
2.3 Friction modeling

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 Finite Element Modeling for Prediction of Cutting Forces during Micro Turning of Titanium Alloy

Heat 2.24e0.0007*T 0.000 0.000 3 than edge radius, cutting force is dominant over thrust
capacity 5*T 3*T force due to shearing action is shown in the figure. 9.
Nmm-2C-1 +2.07 +0.57
Poisson's 0.342 0.25 0.25 0.25 3.2 Effect of cutting forces on cutting speed
ratio
When cutting speed increases, from 19m/min
Yen et al.(2004), Ozelet al.(2010),Jaffery and to 37m/min there is sudden decrease in cutting force
Mativenga (2012). due to increase of temperature in the cutting zone. with
further increase of cutting speed there is gradual
3. Results and discussion decrease of cutting force due to thermal softening effect.
When cutting speed increases from 57m/min to
3.1 Effect of forces on edge radius 75m/min the value of cutting force and
It is observed from the simulation results that,
when the cutting edge radius is equal to or less than the

Figure 9 Variation of forces with time at

19m/min, 20µm/rev, 10µm depth of cut.
Figure 7 Variation of forces with time at
19m/min, 10µm/rev, 10µm depth of cut. thrust force coming close, and indicates that it is not
favorable condition for machining. There is no much
variation in axial force when cutting speed increases
from 19m/min to 75m/min. Figure 10 shows the
variation of forces with time at 57m/min, 20 µm/rev,
and 30µm depth of cut.

Figure 8 Variation of forces with time at

19m/min, 15µm/rev, 10µm depth of cut.

uncutchip thickness thurst force is more than the cutting

force due to rubbing and ploughing action is shown in Figure 10 Variation of forces with time at
the figure 7 and 8. When uncut chip thickness is greater 57m/min, 20µm/rev, 30µm depth of cut.

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5th International & 26th All India Manufacturing Technology, Design and Research Conference (AIMTDR 2014) December 12th–14th, 2014, IIT
Guwahati, Assam, India

3.3 Effect of cutting forces on feed rate and depth and hence there is increase of tool chip temperature
of cut. by increasing the cutting speed.

Figure 11 shows the variation of cutting force with 3.5 Finite element model validation
feed rate at 19m/min. Cutting force increases with
Micro turning of Ti6Al4V have been carried
increase of feed rate and depth of cut due to
out using coated carbide tool (AlTiN/TiN) in micro
increased volume of material removal.
turning setup at IIT Madras. Experiments were
conducted by varying cutting speed, feed and depth
of cut. Simulated force values are compared with
experimental values.

Figure 11 Variation of cutting force with feed

rate at 19m/min.

3.4 Specific cutting energy Figure 13 Variation of tool chip temperature with
cutting speed at 20 µm/rev,30µm depth of cut.

Figure 12 Variation of specific cutting energy at

19m/min.
Figure 14 Comparison of experimental and
simulated cutting force at 19m/min, 20µm/rev,
Figure 12 shows the variation of specific cutting 10µm depth of cut.
energy at various feed rates. When uncutchip
thickness is less than the edge radius there is
increase in specific cutting energy due to strain Figure 14 shows comparison of experimental and
gradient induced material strengthening effectsLiu simulated cutting forces with time. Figure 15 shows the
and melkote (2004). Figure 13 shows the variation of comparison of experimental and simulated cutting
tool chip interface temperature with cutting speed. forces at 19m/min and 30µm depth of cut.
Since titanium alloy have low thermal conductivity,
heat generated during machining are not dissipated,

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 Finite Element Modeling for Prediction of Cutting Forces during Micro Turning of Titanium Alloy

Ozel, T.,Sima,M.Srivastava, A.K. and KaftanogluB.

(2010), Investigations on the Effects of Multi-Layered
Coated Inserts in Machining Ti–6Al–4V Alloy with
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Ozel, T.,Thepsonthi,T.Ulutan,D.andKaftanogluB.
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