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Abstract
This study is part of the ongoing research at the Department of Mechanical Engineering of the University of Brescia on FEM simulations
of cutting operations. In recent years, the application of ®nite element method (FEM) to cutting operations has proved to be effective to
study the cutting process and chip formation. In particular, the simulation results can be used as a practical tool both by researchers and
machine and tool makers to design new tools and to optimize the cutting process.
Several papers are available on two-dimensional simulation of cutting process because the three-dimensional versions of FEM software
required a big effort in computational time. The present work aims to simulate three-dimensional cutting operations. In particular
orthogonal cutting and oblique cutting operations are modeled. The FEM software used for this study is DEFORM 3D. The simulation
results are compared with simulations and experimental data found in literature. A good agreement has been found, con®rming the ability
of simulations in predicting chip ¯ow in cutting processes. # 2000 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.
0924-0136/00/$ ± see front matter # 2000 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.
PII: S 0 9 2 4 - 0 1 3 6 ( 9 9 ) 0 0 3 1 0 - 6
100 E. Ceretti et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 98 (2000) 99±103
Fig. 4. Temperature distribution on the surface and inside the tool and the
The load analysis (Fig. 3) shows how both the cutting workpiece.
force (y-directed force that acts against the tool progress in
the same direction of the cutting speed) and the thrust force
(z-directed force that acts against the tool in the direction of 3.1. The oblique cutting model
the cutting depth) became stable when the tool path is about
2 mm con®rming that a steady state is reached, the lateral The cutting model used now as reference model is shown in
force (x-directed force) is zero during all the cutting simula- Fig. 5 and it is similar to the one used previously for the ortho-
tion indeed in an orthogonal cutting process this force is not gonal cutting case but now the cutting speed, assigned to the
expected. tool, is not perpendicular to the direction of the cutting edge.
In order to obtain such results in a reasonable computation
time a low value for the shear friction factor at the tool/
workpiece interface has been used (m 0.2) but the value
that has been extracted from experimental data by IFW is
four times higher (m 0.8). Thus the comparison between
simulated and experimental cutting force values has to be
done carefully: a law that shows the relationship between
shear friction factor variation and cutting force value has
been found in some previous works on this topic [6±8]. By
using this law, the simulated value has been corrected to take
into account the difference in shear factor values pointed out
above, the corrected result is 435 N and it is close to the
experimental value of 420 N reported by IFW.
Using DEFORM 3D the distribution of temperature,
stresses, strain and strain rate can be plotted on object's
surfaces as well as in their inside part (with sections)
(Fig. 4). A qualitative analysis of these parameters shows
their realistic distribution (close to the theoretical predic-
tions) during the simulation process.
3. Oblique cutting
Fig. 8. Chip geometry after 0.9 mm of tool path: (a) simulations; (b) experiments; (c) Ueda's simulations.
E. Ceretti et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 98 (2000) 99±103 103
3.2. The oblique cutting simulations research: verifying the ¯exibility of the models varying the
cutting parameters and looking at all the simulation outputs
Fig. 5 shows displacement, shape and surface mesh of from a quantitative standpoint.
tool and workpiece at the beginning of the cutting operation Once a high grade of precision in predicting the real
from different points of view. A tool path of 0.9 mm is outputs of cutting operations is achieved, it will be necessary
simulated so that the ®nal progress of the tool equals that of to make this skill useful for tool makers and tool users.
experimental results and a comparison between simulation Cutting machines users, in fact, can use the simulation
and experiments is possible. outputs in a very effective way: the ability of predicting
The graph in Fig. 6 plots the force trends: all the three the effects of process parameters variations on the ®nal
forces (cutting force, lateral force and thrust force) reach a output will help to set the best cutting conditions before
stable value when the simulation reaches a steady state. The starting the production line. For example studying distribu-
presence of the lateral force, that always appears when the tions of temperature and shear stresses will make possible to
cutting operation is oblique, can be noticed. The same graph minimize tool wear. Moreover, FEM simulations will be
allows for a comparison between simulated loads, experi- helpful also for machines and tool makers, they will help to
mental loads and Ueda's simulation. A very good correlation select the right material, the best tool geometry and the
is found. For this case, as well as for the previous one, the process parameters in order to optimize tool design and
distributions of temperature, stresses, strain and strain rate working processes saving time and money.
have been qualitatively evaluated and the capability of
DEFORM 3D in predicting realistic patterns for these
variables has been proved. As an example, Fig. 7 shows
the effective stress distribution on the workpiece surface. References
This distribution, as well as the asymmetric chip shape,
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underlines the high grade of investigation that can be
Machining, NUMIFORM'95, 1995, pp. 101±108.
achieved with a three-dimensional model. [2] S. Kumar, P. Fallbohmer, T. Altan, Finite element simulation of metal
Fig. 8 shows the comparison between the geometry of the cutting processes: determination of material properties and effects of
simulated chip (a), the real chip (b), and Ueda's results (c). tool geometry on chip flow, Report no. ERC/NSM-D96-17, ERC for
Each different point of view shows that the simulated chip is Net Shape Manufacturing, The Ohio State University, 1996.
[3] V.S. Joshi, P.M. Dixit, V.K. Jain, Viscoplastic analysis of metal
very similar to the real one.
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[5] Deform 3D User Manual, vol. 2.3, Scientific Forming Technologies
Corporation, Columbus, OH, 1997.
The excellent results obtained in predicting the outputs of
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cutting operations using well known FEM two-dimensional speed milling: application of 2D FEM to chip formation in
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models to simulate all the details of real operations and [7] E. Ceretti, E. Taupin, T. Altan, Simulation of metal flow and fracture
obtain outputs that match with real data. Thus the objective applications in orthogonal cutting, blanking and cold extrusion,
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of this work has been to create reliable FEM models to
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of Thermal and Mechanical Stress on Tool Wear in Continous
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