Numerical simulations of the influence of the tool geometric parameters on cutting forces and temperatures in high-speed machining of Ti6Al4V

In the contrast study of establishing the frictional models in finite element (FE) simulations of high-speed machining Ti6Al4V in this work, FE predictions from the simulation are greatly influenced by frictional coefficient mu, which shows the predicted force at the speed of 166m/min is much closer to the experimentally measured one when mu=0.2. In order to investigate the tool wear in high-speed cutting to prolong the tool life and reduce the tool cost, the influences of the tool geometric parameters including the rake angle gamma(o), clearance angle alpha(o) and cutting edge radius r(epsilon) on the chip formation, on the cutting forces and on the cutting temperatures are numerically simulated under the given cutting conditions, then the general rule of the selection of gamma(o), alpha(o) and r(epsilon) is presented accordingly. In the meantime, the average cutting forces and temperatures are obtained under different simulation conditions, which are the basis of further study on the relationship between the tool geometric parameters and cutting forces together with temperatures to obtain the proper tool geometric parameters for simultaneously controlling both cutting forces and temperatures to their proper values in high-speed machining in practice.