j o u r n a l o f m a t e r i a l s p r o c e s s i n g t e c h n o l o g y 1 9 9 ( 2 0 0 8 ) 234–244

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jmatprotec

Experimental and theoretical study of workpiece

temperature when end milling hardened steels using
(TiAl)N-coated and PcBN-tipped tools

Lincoln Cardoso Brandão a , Reginaldo Teixeira Coelho b,∗ , Alessandro Roger Rodrigues c
a Federal University of São João del Rei, UFSJ, Praça Frei Orlando, 170 Centro, Brazil
b School of Engineering at São Carlos, EESC/USP, Avenida Trabalhador São-carlense, 400 Centro, Brazil
c Faculty of Engineering at Ilha Solteira-FEIS/UNESP, Av. Brasil Centro 56, Brazil

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The present work shows an experimental and theoretical study on heat flow when end
Received 4 April 2007 milling, at high-speed, hardened steels applied to moulds and dies. AISI H13 and AISI D2
Received in revised form steels were machined with two types of ball nose end mills: coated with (TiAl)N and tipped
19 July 2007 with PcBN. The workpiece geometry was designed to simulate tool–workpiece interaction
Accepted 26 July 2007 in real situations found in mould industries, in which complex surfaces and thin walls
are commonly machined. The compressed and cold air cooling systems were compared to
dry machining. Results indicated a relatively small temperature variation, with higher range
Keywords: when machining AISI D2 with PcBN-tipped end mill. All cooling systems used demonstrated
Temperature measurements good capacity to remove heat from the machined surface, especially the cold air. Compressed
Heat conduction and convection air was the most indicated to keep workpiece at relatively stable temperature. A theoreti-
High-speed cutting cal model was also proposed to estimate the energy transferred to the workpiece (Q) and
Molds and dies the average convection coefficient (h̄) for the cooling systems used. The model used a FEM
simulation and a steepest decent method to find the best values for both variables.
© 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction As it is well known throughout literature on metal cutting

High-speed machining (HSM) is a technology that can be very
efficiently applied in aeronautical and automotive industries
to produce dimensionally precise parts. The major application
in automotive industries is to machine moulds and dies, which
has experienced a great technological development lately. The
term HSM “involves machining at considerably higher cut-
ting speeds and feed rates than those used in conventional
machining” (Dewes et al., 1999), however, it is most generally
used to describe end milling at high rotational speeds. Despite
the increasing application of this advanced technology, there
are still many problems to be solved (Ming, 2003).
processes, temperature is one of the important factors affect-
ing tool wear, workpiece surface integrity and dimensional
precision, especially working with HSM (Lazoglu and Altintas,
2002). Heat is generated at the primary deformation zone, at
the shear plane, due to plastic work and material rupture. The
heating at this zone leads to high temperature, thus soften-
ing the material and allowing even greater deformation. Heat
also comes from the secondary deformation zone when chip is
deformed on the rake face, due to sliding and friction, or adhe-
sion. At the tertiary zone, an interface between the tool relief
face and newly machined surface, heat is also generated to
overcome friction (Abukhshim et al., 2006). Temperature dis-

∗
Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: lincoln@sc.usp.br (L.C. Brandão), rtcoelho@sc.usp.br (R.T. Coelho), roger@dem.feis.unesp.br (A.R. Rodrigues).
0924-0136/$ – see front matter © 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.jmatprotec.2007.07.049
 j o u r n a l o f m a t e r i a l s p r o c e s s i n g t e c h n o l o g y 1 9 9 ( 2 0 0 8 ) 234–244 235

tribution in the tool, chip and workpiece may be known by the

Table 1 – Geometry of the solid carbide ball nose end
heat flowing into these parts, although that has appeared to mill Fr1
be a very complex and difficult task to be handled by analytical
Code Fr1
equations (Ming, 2003).
l2 (mm) 125
In the last two decades, FEM codes have achieved a very mm (mm) 16
satisfactory level of development and reliability in predict- ap (mm) 32
ing stress and temperature distribution, mainly for forming r␧ (mm) 8
processes. Recently, however, their capability to model chip Dc2 (mm) 16
formation has been demonstrated and provided new and pow-  0 (◦ ) 1.5
˛0 (◦ ) 12
erful tools for machining processes analysis, too (Yvonnet et
zn (adm) 2
al., 2006). There is still need to know not only the tempera-
Coating (TiAl)N
ture in cutting process, but also understand the cooling taking ISO code P10
place at the cutting zone, due to the effect of cutting fluids.
Conventional cutting fluids may create several environ-
mental problems and dry cutting, or alternative cooling
systems are being tested, which would call for different
approaches (Paul et al., 2001). The present work intends to
assess the effects of two different cooling systems, com-
pressed air and cooled air, comparing them with dry cutting
when end milling AISI H13 and D2 steels using (TiAl)N-coated
and PcBN-tipped tools. Measurements of workpiece temper-
ature, using embedded thermocouples, was the assessment
variable. A FEM model was used to estimate the energy
transferred to the workpiece (Q) and the average convec-
tion coefficient (h̄) for the cooling systems used. A steepest
decent method was employed to find the best values for both
variables, based on fitting theoretical equations on the exper-
imental temperature–time curve.

2. Materials and methods

Fig. 1 – Details of the Fr1 (R216.42-16030-AK32G 1610) ball
2.1. Experimental work nose. For dimensions see Table 1.

Milling tests used a Hermle machining center model C

800 (24,000 rpm and 15 kW). Three 16.0 mm diameter ball
noses end mills were used: two (TiAl)N-coated, containing
different point geometry, coded Fr1 and Fr2, and one PcBN-
tipped, coded Fr3. Some of their common characteristics
are in Tables 1 and 2. Geometrical details are shown in
Figs. 1 and 2.
Workpiece and thermocouples set up are shown in Fig. 3. It
has 14 mm × 48 mm × 100 mm of total dimensions but only the
quarter-circle surface was milled. The other part, with three
holes, was for fixing purposes.
Fig. 4 shows a general view of the set up and the ther-
mocouple fixing system, which was aimed at keeping the
repeatability of the measurements, by means of a steady posi-
tioning and thermal insulation from the environment around.
The quarter-circle had a 14.0 mm radius and was 5.0 mm
thickness. The machined surface geometry was designed to
simulate real cases found in industry, in which complex
surfaces and thin walls are commonly machined. Such geo-
metrical form allows the cutting speed to vary from nearly
zero to its maximum, considering the contact point and a 2
1/2 axis strategy. Workpiece materials were the AISI H13 and
AISI D2 heat treated to an average hardness of 52 and 58 HRc,
respectively.
Thermocouples were embedded from the internal part of
the workpiece and they were placed at 2 mm below the milling
surface. Along the workpiece length the first and the last were
at 5 mm from the ends and the remaining three were equally
spaced at 22.5 mm from each other. Fig. 3(a) and (b) shows the
cylindrical milling surface and its back where the thermocou-
ples were embedded.
Fig. 4(a) shows the thermocouples placed on a NylonTM
fixing tube, before the final assembly. The five white pins in
Fig. 4(a) on the fixing tube were used to correctly position the
thermocouples into the holes of the workpiece. The junction of
the thermocouples had, in average, 1.0 mm diameter as shown
in detail of Fig. 4(b). The space between the external diameter

Table 2 – Geometry of the solid carbide ball nose for Fr2 and Fr3
Code Dc (mm) R (mm) Lc (mm) X1 (mm) X2 (mm) d1 (mm) 0 (◦ ) ˛0 (◦ ) zn (adm) Coating ISO code

Fr2 16 8 9 16 32 8 0 5 2 (TiAl)N P15

Fr3 16 8 9 16 32 8 0 5 2 PcBN 85% of cBN
236 j o u r n a l o f m a t e r i a l s p r o c e s s i n g t e c h n o l o g y 1 9 9 ( 2 0 0 8 ) 234–244

Fig. 2 – Details of the ball noses Fr2 (F1827R.Z16.Z2.08 WXK15) and Fr3 (F1827R.Z16.Z2.08 WCB80). (a) Geometrical details:
for dimensions see Table 2; (b) (TiAl)N-coated Fr2; (c) PcBN-tipped Fr3.

of the tube and the workpiece internal diameter, formed by

Table 3 – Some values of cutting conditions used
the quarter-circle, was filled with a fiberglass cloth.
Each thermocouple was connected to an electronic ampli- Milling values Tools
fier circuit ESELTM model XTR01. Temperature amplified signal [Fr1] [Fr2] [Fr3]
was acquired at 10 Hz by LabView program and a National
Minimum diameter (mm) 3.56 3.56 3.56
Instruments board A/D (PCI-M10-16E-4 model). The acquisi-
Maximum diameter (mm) 16 16 16
tion points were smoothed each 50 points, since there was Minimum cutting speed (m min−1 ) 51 51 102
some oscillation due to the up and down movement of the end Medium cutting speed (m min−1 ) 200 200 400
mill. Thermocouples were type T of copper–constatan with Maximum cutting speed (m min−1 ) 286 286 572
gauge AWG 30 (0.051 mm2 ) calibrated in the range from 10 to Feed rate per tooth (mm tooth−1 ) 0.10 0.10 0.10
90 ◦ C. Depth cutting (mm) 0.20 0.20 0.20
Speed spindle (rpm) 5694 5694 11389
Two cooling systems were used: compressed air, using a
Feed speed (mm min−1 ) 1139 1139 2278
normal compressed air line available in the laboratory and
cold air. In the first system the air temperature was around
12 ◦ C. Cold air system used the vortex system (Fröhlingsdorf tool manufacturer, i.e., depth cut ap = 0.2 mm, feed rate
and Unger, 1999), which was capable of delivering tempera- fz = 0.10 mm/tooth and cutting width ae = 0.25 mm. Two rota-
ture around −2 ◦ C. For both cooling systems the pressure was tional speeds were used during the tests; 5694 rpm for the
6 kgf cm−2 and the flow rate 22 m3 h−1 . The distance between (TiAl)N-coated ones and 11,389 rpm for the PcBN. Those val-
the air exit and the tool cutting edge was kept at 20 mm, ues were selected according to manufacturers, in order to have
according to Fig. 5. the best performance of both tools. Using a constant spin-
The cooling systems were positioned behind the tool, oppo- dle speed for each end mill and with tool–workpiece contact
site to the cutting area, in order to improve its efficiency point varying, a reference cutting speed was calculated for the
in removing heat from the workpiece. Cutting conditions medium contact diameter, which is shown in Table 3. The
were selected according to recommendations coming from milling strategy was non-interrupted cutting with up-and-

Fig. 3 – Workpiece with its fixing holes: (a) general view of the dynamometer with workpiece on the top and (b) top view of
dynamometer without the wokpiece (details of the thermocouples and their fixing system).
 j o u r n a l o f m a t e r i a l s p r o c e s s i n g t e c h n o l o g y 1 9 9 ( 2 0 0 8 ) 234–244
Fig. 4 – Workpiece fixing system with thermocouples
underneath the quarter-circle wokpiece surface: (a) general
view of the dynamometer with workpiece on the top and
(b) top view of dynamometer without the wokpiece (details
of the thermocouples and their fixing system).
downward milling, which keep the edge always in contact with
the workpiece, Fig. 6.
2.2. Theoretical evaluation of energy (Q) and
convection coefficient (h̄)
Estimations of the energy, Q, flowing into the workpiece and
the average convection coefficient, h̄, could be obtained by a
FEM model developed with ANSYS. Only the machined part of
the workpiece was modeled using “brick” elements. It was five
Fig. 5 – Set up used for cooling system with cold air.
237
Fig. 6 – Milling strategy used in the experiments.
Fig. 7 – Mesh used to model the machined part of the
workpiece.
layers of 1 mm, 1000 elements each layer, being 100 elements
in the length and 10 elements in the width of workpiece. Fig. 7
shows the mesh.
During the simulation, the first element at the external
surface, on the corner, receives the energy Q (coming from
the chip formation region) and relieves another amount by
convection, using h̄, see Fig. 8.
The machined surface, number 4, in Fig. 8 received heat
from the moving source (chip formation) only at the element
where the tool was at a particular moment in time. All the
other element faces loses heat according to the cooling sys-
tem being simulated. The lateral surfaces, numbers 1, 3, 5 and
6, lose heat always by convection. The internal surface, num-
ber 4, in Fig. 8 is insulated all the time. After calculating the
temperature distribution for the whole domain, the same pro-
cedure is applied to the next element. That procedure goes
following the end mill path until the last element. At the end,
238 j o u r n a l o f m a t e r i a l s p r o c e s s i n g t e c h n o l o g y 1 9 9 ( 2 0 0 8 ) 234–244

In order to find the best estimated values for Q and h̄, which
minimize the average error function, Eravg , the steepest decent
method was employed. It consists basically, in estimate a first
point Pi for the function and move to point Pi+1 in the direction
of the local downhill gradient −Eravg (Pi ) (Flannery et al., 1990).
This method was adopted due to its simplicity and it leads
to a local minimum, which seemed good enough since the
energy, for example, has its limit, between zero and the cut-
ting power. The convection coefficient has also some known
limits (Incropera and Dewitt, 1990; Özisik, 1980; Bejan, 1996).
To find the gradients, in both directions (Q and h̄) steps were
established and four new points were simulated around the
first guessed one. Each of their error function was calculated
and the steepest gradient followed until the error valley was
Fig. 8 – Detail of the load steps in the elements. found. At this point the best combination of Q and h̄ had been
found for each experiment set up. The step for the energy was
selected as 0.5 J and for the convection coefficient depends on
the final temperature distribution is obtained and the FEM the cooling system. The whole minimum search procedure
curves of temperature–time are plotted for those elements at was implemented using program developed using MatLabTM
the thermocouple positions, given by software. The stop criterion was less than 0.1 for Eravg , or 5
steps in any direction.
i i
TFEM = FEM (t) (1)

where i is the thermocouple number, i = 1, . . ., 5. To obtain this 3. Results and discussion

first set of curves, it was necessary to guess the initial pair Q1 ,
h̄1 and run the FEM model. The initial values were calculated 3.1. Experimental results
based on the 10% of the total cutting energy being transferred
to the workpiece, according to Fig. 9 shows one typical experimental temperature graph
when cutting H13 in dry conditions.
Q = mcp  (2) As the cutting edge moves towards each thermocouple,
there is a raise in temperature to a maximum value when the
where m is the workpiece mass, cp is specific heat at constant edge is over it. After the edge passes over the first thermocou-
pressure. ple its temperature decreases slowly and the next one starts
After obtaining those curves they had to be compared to rising. The peaks also grow from the first to the last, in this par-
the experimental ones, measured with the thermocouples and ticular case with dry cutting. Table 4 shows the overall results
calculate the error for each curve of peaks for dry end milling.
In general, higher temperature peaks were observed when
2

N
[ i i milling AISI D2 and the lowest always with Fr1. The hardness
FEM (tj ) − EXP (tj )]
Eri = (3) can be responsible for this high temperature peaks. In con-
N
j=1 trast, the highly sharp cutting edges of Fr1 can also explain
the lowest temperature peaks. Its geometry is the best for
where N is the number of time points. Up to this stage there chip formation, causing shear with lower forces and, conse-
is an average quadratic error for each one of the five thermo- quently, lower temperature. Comparing Fr1 and Fr2, both have
couples and an overall average error was calculated by the same geometry and only different edge material. It may
5 seem that PcBN has a slight advantage in temperature against
i=1
Eri the (TiAl)N coating, when cutting H13. However, PcBN was cut-
Eravg = (4)
5 ting with a higher speed, consequently with shorter contact

Table 4 – Maximum and minimum temperatures peaks for the AISI H13 and AISI D2 when dry cutting
Steel Cooling system Tool code Temperature peaks (◦ C) Range (◦ C)

T0 T1 T2 T3 T4 TMIN TMAX

AISI H13 Dry Fr1 33.2 32.1 33.2 34.6 36.5 32.1 36.5
Fr2 38.0 40.0 41.0 43.4 48.9 38.0 48.9
Fr3 29.7 31.6 31.5 32.3 33.0 29.7 33.0

AISI D2 Dry Fr1 34.7 35.3 35.9 37.5 43.5 34.7 43.5
Fr2 39.4 36.2 37.6 39.8 48.5 36.2 48.5
Fr3 37.1 37.2 36.2 36.5 42.3 36.2 42.3
 j o u r n a l o f m a t e r i a l s p r o c e s s i n g t e c h n o l o g y 1 9 9 ( 2 0 0 8 ) 234–244 239

time, which left much less time for heat propagation into the
workpiece. That may be closer to an adiabatic cutting.
As one can notice, the higher measured values with dry
cutting were around 48 ◦ C, which is relatively low compared to
values found for dry cutting elsewhere (Toh, 2005). However,
in the present work thermocouples were used embedded in
small holes at 2.0 mm below the milling surface. There is a
spreading of heat throughout the workpiece and a high gra-
dient before it is detected by the thermocouples. Those can
be the causes of comparatively low measured values, but at
that position there was a better indication of the whole body
temperature, which was used to estimate absorbed energy.
Fig. 10 shows a typical graph when cutting H13 using com-
pressed air as a cooling system.
In general, it can be observed a small progressive increase
on the temperature peaks but with lower values, compared to
dry cutting. That demonstrates a more efficient heat removal
system, when using compressed air. Table 5 shows all the
Fig. 9 – Temperature at 2.0 mm below surface when cutting
results for the tests with compressed air.
AISI H13 using Fr1 with vc = 200 m min−1 ,
Comparing the temperature peaks amongst the different
fz = 0.1 mm tooth−1 , ap = 0.20 mm, ae = 0.25 mm, dry cutting.
tools used, the same tendency observed in the dry cutting
conditions can be observed, i.e., Fr1 showed the lowest tem-
perature values, followed by Fr3 and Fr2. In general, values for
D2 were also slightly higher, following the hardness.
The cold air system caused a significant decrease on work-
piece temperature demonstrating an excellent capacity to
remove heat. Even so, there was a peak when cutting edge
ran over the thermocouple position and the central thermo-
couple, number 2, shown the lowest peak. Table 6 shows all
the results for the tests with cold air.
Fig. 11 shows a typical graph when cutting H13 using cold
air as a cooling system.
Comparisons amongst the tools and workpiece materials
showed the same tendency as those previously discussed.
Overall, the experiments generated higher peaks of temper-
ature for the dry cutting, followed by compressed air and cold
air. Additionally, the cold air system managed to low the work-
piece temperature in about 2 to 3 ◦ C. That behavior can result
in a dimensional effect as bad as the dry cutting, but in oppo-
site sense.

3.2. Simulation results

Fig. 10 – Temperature at 2.0 mm below surface when Fig. 12 shows a typical graph of temperature versus time for
cutting AISI H13 using Fr2 with vc = 200 m min−1 , dry cutting, obtained from the FEM simulation.
fz = 0.1 mm tooth−1 , ap = 0.20 mm, ae = 0.25 mm, compressed The original curve presents an oscillation, since the heat
air as cooling system. source (chip formation) runs up and down on the curved work-

Table 5 – Maximum and minimum temperatures peak for the AISI H13 and AISI D2 using compressed air
Steel Cooling system Tool code Temperature peaks (◦ C) Range (◦ C)

T0 T1 T2 T3 T4 TMIN TMAX

AISI H13 Compressed air Fr1 27.3 27.8 27.4 27.8 29.4 27.3 29.4
Fr2 30.4 31.5 31.3 32.5 32.9 30.4 32.9
Fr3 27.2 28.6 28.0 28.2 28.4 27.2 28.6

AISI D2 Compressed air Fr1 31.7 30.8 30.7 32.5 33.7 30.8 33.7
Fr2 31.6 31.8 30.6 32.4 33.6 30.1 33.6
Fr3 28.3 29.0 28.6 29.2 28.9 28.3 29.1
240 j o u r n a l o f m a t e r i a l s p r o c e s s i n g t e c h n o l o g y 1 9 9 ( 2 0 0 8 ) 234–244

Table 6 – A maximum and minimum temperature peaks for the AISI H13 and AISI D2 using cold air
Steel Cooling system Tool code Thermocouples temperature (◦ C) Temperature (◦ C)

T0 T1 T0 T1 T0 TMIN TMAX

AISI H13 Cold air Fr1 24.2 24.0 23.9 24.0 24.8 23.9 24.8
Fr2 27.7 27.4 27.4 28.2 30.8 27.4 30.8
Fr3 25.2 24.7 24.0 24.2 25.2 24.0 25.2

AISI D2 Cold air Fr1 26.7 24.8 24.5 24.0 24.5 24.0 26.7
Fr2 26.2 25.7 25.8 26.3 28.8 25.7 28.8
Fr3 25.9 28.9 29.1 29.7 29.8 25.9 29.8

Table 7 – Summary of the average quadratic error, Eravg , for all tools and workpiece materials cut in dry conditions

piece surface and also the elements had a finite mass and error. In some of these cases, lower values could be found. That
volume. That oscillation was also observed on the experimen- was necessary since the algorithm only finds local minimums
tal curve, but with lower intensity, since there is some time and another minimum could be in the neighborhood.
response delay from the thermocouple. In the FEM simulation Considering that the errors were an average quadratic for
the oscillation was much more evident because thermocou- all the temperature points, each in highlighted value in Table 8
ple time response was not modeled. Therefore, the original would represent the squared temperature error for a single
graphs were filtered using a median filter function of LabView temperature measurement. Therefore, the theoretical curves
program with 50 points, similarly to that applied on the exper- can be considered quite precise in predicting the energy and
imental curves. After the filtering, the graphs obtained from convection coefficient for end milling H13. Table 8 shows the
FEM were confronted with the experimental ones and submit-
ted to the minimum error search, according to Eq. (4), aiming
at the best values for Q and h̄. Table 7 shows a summary of the Table 8 – Estimated values for Q and h̄ when dry
results of average error, highlighting the minimum found. machining
The shadowed error values were the initial guess and then
Workpieces AISI H13 AISI D2
the steepest descent method took the way down to the low-
est value, keeping constant the selected steps. In all those Tools Fr1 Fr2 Fr3 Fr1 Fr2 Fr3
cases the error criterion was met before reaching the maxi- Q (J) 2.5 4.5 3.0 3.5 4.0 3.5
mum number of steps. When the criterion was met at the first h̄ (W m−2 ◦ C−1 ) 750 500 1000 500 500 500
selected point, the program was run again to search for a lower
 j o u r n a l o f m a t e r i a l s p r o c e s s i n g t e c h n o l o g y 1 9 9 ( 2 0 0 8 ) 234–244 241

Table 9 – Summary of the average quadratic error, Eravg , for all tools and workpiece materials cut with compressed air

Fig. 11 – Temperature at 2.0 mm below surface when Fig. 12 – Typical curve of temperature versus time obtained
cutting AISI H13 using Fr3 with vc = 400 m min−1 , from FEM simulation, when dry cutting.
fz = 0.1 mm tooth−1 , ap = 0.20 mm, ae = 0.25 mm, cold air as
cooling system.

best values of Q and h̄ for each combination tool–workpiece,

Table 10 – Estimated values for Q and h̄ when machining
when dry machining them.
using compressed air
In general, the heat transferred to the workpiece is higher
Workpieces AISI H13 AISI D2
when machining D2, according to its temperature peaks,
which is due to the hardness difference between both mate- Tools Fr1 Fr2 Fr3 Fr1 Fr2 Fr3
rials. Slight differences were also found among the tools,
Q (J) 2.5 3.0 2.5 3.0 3.0 2.5
following the temperature trend too. That can be explained
h̄ (W m−2 ◦ C−1 ) 2500 2500 2500 2500 2500 2500
in the same way, i.e., by the differences in geometry and
242 j o u r n a l o f m a t e r i a l s p r o c e s s i n g t e c h n o l o g y 1 9 9 ( 2 0 0 8 ) 234–244

also cutting speed. Regarding the convection coefficient, the

differences may be considered small, according to the lit-
erature related to this topic (Incropera and Dewitt, 1990;
Özisik, 1980; Bejan, 1996). Therefore, for dry cutting both hard-
ened materials the convection coefficient is between 500 and
1000 W m−2 ◦ C−1 .
Fig. 13 shows a typical graph of temperature versus time,
when using compressed air.
The temperature graphs obtained from the FEM simulation
for compressed air looked very similar to those experimentally
measured. The first and the last thermocouples had the high-
est peaks, confirming the measurements. Initial values for the
energy, Q, were the same as those for the dry cutting. Val-
ues for the convection coefficient, using compressed air were
obtained from the literature (Abukhshim et al., 2006). Table 9
shows a summary of the results of average error, highlighting
the minimum found.
Table 10 shows the best values of Q and h̄ for each com-
Fig. 13 – Typical curve of temperature versus time obtained
bination tool–workpiece, when machining using compressed
from FEM simulation, when using compressed air.
air.
Comparing with the dry cut values, it can be noticed that,
in general, energy into the workpiece was lower and the con-
vection coefficient higher. Amongst all the results machining
with compressed air, only PcBN-tipped tools, Fr3, could have
some benefits from the compressed air as a cooling system,

Table 11 – Summary of the average quadratic error, Eravg , for all tools and workpiece materials cut using cold air
 j o u r n a l o f m a t e r i a l s p r o c e s s i n g t e c h n o l o g y 1 9 9 ( 2 0 0 8 ) 234–244 243

Table 12 – Estimated values for Q and h̄ when machining using cold air
Workpieces AISI H13 AISI D2

Tools Fr1 Fr2 Fr3 Fr1 Fr2 Fr3

Q (J) 2.5 2.5 1.5 2.5 2.5 1.5

h̄ (W m−2 ◦ C−1 ) 20000 10000 10000 20000 20000 50000

1980; Bejan, 1996). Considering that the proposed FEM model

could not be brought closer to the experimental temperature
curves, the convection coefficient cannot be better specified.
That appears to be a limitation for that procedure of inverse
estimation.

4. Conclusions

When end milling hardened AISI H13 and AISI D2 steels using
solid carbide (TiAl)N-coated and PcBN-tipped tools, the follow-
ing conclusions can be drawn:

• Comparing the different cooling systems used, compressed

air demonstrated to be the most appropriate one, since it
was able to keep workpiece temperature closer to the ambi-
ent. Dry cutting allows some workpiece thermal expansion,
while cooled air allows thermal contraction. Both can affect
Fig. 14 – Typical curve of temperature versus time obtained workpiece dimension.
from FEM simulation, when using cold air. • When machining with (TiAl)N-coated tools, with differ-
ent edge geometries, Fr1 and Fr2, workpiece temperature
resulted lower with the first one, since its sharp edges were
more efficient in chip formation. The PcBN-tipped tool, Fr3,
although for H13 Fr1 had also less energy. The convection coef-
produced the lowest temperature of all, since it was used at
ficient when machining with compressed air was estimated as
higher cutting speed, in order to work at its most efficient
2500 W m−2 ◦ C−1 .
range.
Fig. 14 shows a typical graph of temperature versus time,
• Overall, higher temperatures were measured when cutting
when using cold air.
AISI D2, compared to AISI H13, mainly due to hardness dif-
The proposed FEM model was not entirely able to simu-
ferences.
late the experimental graph when machining with cold air,
• The FEM proposed and implemented model was capa-
because temperature went below ambient. Boundary condi-
ble of estimating the energy transferred from the chip
tions set in the FEM model did prevent values of going below
formation to the workpiece, Q, and the average convec-
the ambient temperature inside the domain. However, the
tion coefficient, h̄, based on the curve temperature versus
general temperature behavior could be comparable to experi-
time. The values followed the expected tendency, i.e., lower
mental one, since the fall in temperature was only around 2 ◦ C
energy was transferred to the workpiece when using cold
and for short periods of time. Table 11 shows a summary of the
air (1.5–2.5 J) and higher when dry cutting (3.0–4.5 J). Con-
results of average error, highlighting the minimum found.
vection coefficient was higher for the cold air system
Initial values for the energy was in a range lower than those
(10,000–50,000 W m−2 ◦ C−1 ) and lower for the dry machining
before, since a better heat removal efficiency was expected.
(500–1000 W m−2 ◦ C−1 ). Compressed air is in between both
There was no indication in the literature for the values of con-
systems with 2.5–3.0 J and 2500 W m−2 ◦ C−1 .
vection coefficient when using cold air. Therefore, a broader
• The model, however, found its limitation, since it was not
range, above those found so far, was selected for the same rea-
capable of correctly simulate the temperature reduction,
son of better heat removal. Table 12 shows the best values of Q
experimentally observed when using cold air. That can be
and h̄ for each combination tool–workpiece, when machining
overcome in the future, with some modifications in the FEM
using cold air.
routine. Therefore, the model could not better estimate the
When using a very efficient cooling system, there is less
absorbed energy neither average convection coefficient.
energy going into the workpiece and there is almost no differ-
ence amongst tool geometry. Regarding the tool materials, a
slight advantage could be computed to Fr3, the PcBN-tipped Acknowledgements
one. Convection coefficient for that cooling system is between
10,000 and 50,000 W m−2 ◦ C−1 . That range seems to be exces- Authors would like to thank CAPES for funding and support,
sive wide, but according to some other authors, those values SANDVIK Coromant Brazil for provide cutting tools and GER-
are within acceptable ones (Incropera and Dewitt, 1990; Özisik, DAU Brazil for the workpiece materials.
244 j o u r n a l o f m a t e r i a l s p r o c e s s i n g t e c h n o l o g y 1 9 9 ( 2 0 0 8 ) 234–244
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