ME 409 Intelligent Manufacturing Lab

Micro-Endmilling Simulation: Part I

Instructor: Soham Mujumdar, S23 ME Email: sohammujumdar@iitb.ac.in

1 PROBLEM
Consider a practical problem of manufacturing micro heat exchangers. Micro heat exchangers
are mini cooling devices that have wide applications in several important fields such as
aerospace (cooling of gas turbine engines), air conditioning and refrigeration, heat pumps,
laser devices, microelectronics, etc. A simple micro heat exchanger design is shown in Fig. 1.
The device has several microfluidic channels on a metal surface in contact with the heat
source (for example, a hot surface). A coolant is sent flowing through these channels to
effectively cool the heated surface via convection and boiling heat transfer.

Figure 1: Microchannel heat sink [1]

The design parameters of the microchannel-based heat exchangers include width and height
of the individual channels and the roughness of the channel floor as these parameters have a
direct effect on the heat transfer efficiency of these devices. Given the specific values of
these design parameters, can it be determined whether these channels can be
fabricated by micro-endmilling process? If yes, how to choose values of the process
parameters, i.e., spindle speed, feed, depth of cut, etc.? This lab is designed to answer
these questions via micro-endmilling modeling.

2 LAB OVERVIEW
The objective of this laboratory exercise is to simulate surface generation process during
micro-endmilling operation using the model proposed by M. P. Vogler et al. [2] at University of
Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The model uses the concept of minimum chip thickness to
predict the surface roughness along the floor centerline of a slot endmilled on a single-phase
material.
The micro-endmilling model will be explained in the lab by the instructor. Each group is then
required to develop a MATLAB/Python program to simulate the micro-endmilling surface
generation for both single-phase pearlite and single-phase ferrite. Details are given below.

Micro-Endmilling Simulation: Part I 1

 ME 409 Intelligent Manufacturing Lab

Program Inputs:
• Endmill Edge Radius (rc) in [m],
• End Cutting Edge Angle (ECEA) in [deg],
• Feed Per Flute (FPT) in [m/flute],
• Minimum Chip Thickness to Edge Radius Ratio (α)

Program Outputs:
• Predicted surface profile (surface height vs distance) after 20 passes
• Predicted surface roughness Ra value in [µm]

Material Properties:
Minimum chip thickness to edge radius ratio (α) is assumed to be constant for a given material.
Assume a value of 0.20 for pearlite and 0.35 for ferrite.

3 REFERENCES
[1] Van Oevelen, Tijs. "Optimal heat sink design for liquid cooling of electronics." (2014).
[2] M. P. Vogler, R. E. DeVor, and S. G. Kapoor, “On the Modeling and Analysis of Machining
Performance in Micro-Endmilling, Part I: Surface Generation,” J. Manuf. Sci. Eng., Vol. 126,
No. 4, P. 685, 2005.
[3] Wanqun Chen, Dehong Huo, Xiangyu Teng, Yazhou Sun,”Surface Generation Modelling
for Micro end Milling Considering the Minimum Chip Thickness and Tool Runout”, Procedia
CIRP, Volume 58, 2017, Pages 364-369.

4 ASSIGNMENT
A. Read Ref. [2, 3] carefully. You will need to refer to this paper for writing your codes. This
is a group assignment.

B. Upload the simulation code as a text document on Turnitin (https://www.turnitin.com/) by

the given deadline. Follow the instructions below, [14]
• Register yourself using IITB email ID for the class ‘ME409 A2023’ on Turnitin. Use
class ID ‘40438952’ and enrolment key ‘ME409A2023’. Once registered, you
should see an assignment named ‘MicroEMSIM 1’ in which you are supposed to
submit your code file (one submission per group).
• The file should be named ‘MICROEMSIM1_Code_X.txt’, where ‘X’ is replaced by
your group name. e.g., the file for group A will be named
‘MICROEMSIM1_Code_A.txt’.
• Your script MUST contain names of all the group members at the beginning in the
comments section. The program MUST be well-commented and should work with
latest versions of MATLAB (R2021 or later) or Python (3.10). There will be a grade
penalty for poorly written programs.

Micro-Endmilling Simulation: Part I 2

 ME 409 Intelligent Manufacturing Lab

C. Upload a group report in WORD (‘.docx’) format on Moodle by the given deadline (one
submission per group). The file should be named as ‘MICROEMSIM1_Report_X.docx’,
where ‘X’ stands for your group name. The report MUST include answers to questions (a)
to (e).
(a) Describe your algorithm in form of a pseudo code for the micro-endmilling surface
generation model (please refer to https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/how-to-write-a-
pseudo-code/ if you are not sure how to write a pseudo code). [8]
(b) A plot of generated surface for pearlite with endmill edge radius of 2 µm, end cutting
edge angle of 10 deg, and feed per flute of 0.25 µm. Also, report the predicted Ra
value in [µm] for this surface. [4]
(c) Simulation results (surface profile plot and Ra value) for the problem assigned to
your group. (Refer to file uploaded on Moodle) [8]
(d) Plots showing the effect of feed per flute and endmill edge radius on the Ra value
for pearlite and ferrite (similar to Fig. 9 and 10 of Ref. [2]). For these plots, you will
need to collect the result of question (c) from all the other groups. [8]
(e) Consider the problem described in section 1. If a channel of 500 µm width, 50 µm
depth, and surface roughness with Ra < 100 nm needs to be machined using micro-
endmilling on pearlite, what is the maximum value of feed [mm/min] that can be
used? Assume you have a choice of two types of tools: tool 1 has a cutting edge
radius of 2 µm, and tool 2 has a cutting edge radius of 5 µm. Both the tools have a
diameter of 500 µm, two flutes, and an end cutting edge angle of 100. The spindle
can reach a maximum of 100,000 RPM. How will the answer change if the material
is ferrite? Show all the steps necessary to arrive at the answer. [8]
Note: There will be a total of two assignments for the micro-endmilling simulation lab (Part I
and Part II). This part has a 50% weightage. Any student/group found to have committed
or aided and abetted the offense of plagiarism will receive ZERO marks for the relevant
assignment/quiz without any exceptions.

Micro-Endmilling Simulation: Part I 3