Development of a thermo-viscoplastic cutting model using finite element method

In this paper, a cutting model is developed by applying the thermo-viscoplastic FEM (finite element method) to analyze the mechanics of steady state orthogonal cutting process. The model is capable of dealing with free chip geometry and chip-tool contact length. The coupling with thermal effects is also considered. In calculating temperature distributions, the ''upwind'' scheme is employed to remove spurious oscillations that occur in the solution and therefore it is possible to analyze high speed metal cutting. Orthogonal cutting experiments are performed for 0.2% carbon steel to validate the cutting model. Tool forces are measured and the results are discussed in comparison with the results of the FEM analysis.