Single discharge thermo-electrical modeling of micromachining mechanism in electric discharge machining

In this study, single discharge thermo-electrical model of workpiece material removal in electrical discharge machining (EDM) was developed. Developed model includes generation of energy in liquid media, variation of plasma channel radius and transfer of heat from the channel by the electrical discharge. Effect of generated energy in plasma channel on workpiece removal was theoretically investigated by using different experimental parameters used in literature. The developed model finds the temperature distribution in the workpiece material using finite element solver ANSYS Workbench (v.11) software. It's assumed that the workpiece material reaches the melting point of workpiece material was removed from the surface. Electrical discharge process was simulated by using transient thermal analysis. The developed model has also been validated by comparing the theoretically obtained material removal values with the experimental ones.