Analysis of Power Grid Parameters Depending on the Variable Concentration and Size of Copper Nanoparticles and Aerosol Formation Parameters in the Minimum Quantity Lubrication Method during Turning of Ti6Al4V Titanium Alloy

Titanium alloys belong to the group of difficult-to-cut materials, machining of which leads to a number of challenges including large thermal loads on the cutting inserts and difficulties in obtaining a high quality machined surface. Great cutting forces, in turn, result in increased energy consumption. Therefore, it becomes important to attempt to reduce the amount of power consumed during machining, which can be achieved, among other things, by reducing the value of the coefficient of friction in the cutting zone. This paper presents a study on the influence of the size as well as the Cu nanoparticle concentration added to cutting fluid in MQL method on the power grid parameters while turning of Ti6Al4V titanium alloy. In this research, nanoparticles of 22 nm and 65 nm at concentrations of 0.5 wt% and 0.75 wt% were used. Turning process was carried out with constant cutting parameters and variable aerosol formation parameters, i.e. mass flow rate of nanofluid and volumetric flow rate of air. Based on the study, the use of 22 nm nanoparticles at 0.5 wt% concentration is recommended to achieve the smallest monitored values of the power grid parameters. The statistical analysis revealed that, out of the aerosol formation parameters considered, both the air flow rate and nanofluid flow rate do not significantly affect the values of the analysed power network parameters. However, the most significant factor is the variable nanoparticle size.