Finite Element and Experimental Analysis of Ultrasonic Vibration Milling of High-Volume Fraction SiCp/Al Composites

SiCp/Al composites have been widely used in many fields due to their excellent mechanical properties. However, the addition of reinforced phase SiC particles makes the overall properties of the composites hard and brittle, which brings great challenges to milling. Ultrasonic vibration-assisted processing technology has great advantages in processing hard and brittle materials. However, the process of rupture of SiC particles cannot be effectively observed during the test processing, and a large number of tests increase the cost of the test. The combination of finite element analysis and experiment was used to study the machining performance of High-volume fraction SiCp/Al composites in longitudinal-torsional ultrasonic-assisted milling (LTUAM), and its feasibility was evaluated by comparing with conventional Milling (CM). By analyzing the trajectories of cutting edges in ultrasonic-assisted milling, It was found that ultrasonic frequency determines the time of periodic contact-separation between chisel edge and workpiece, and ultrasonic amplitude determines the maximum distance of contact-separation. Using ABAQUS finite element software, a polygon SiC particles model with a high-volume fraction was established to investigate the SiC particles crushing process under different ultrasonic-assisted milling conditions. The results showed that high-frequency ultrasonic-assisted milling could soften SiCp/Al composites, and the structural integrity of silicon carbide particles could be better maintained under appropriate ultrasonic amplitudes, reducing the probability of fragmentation. The removal mode was mainly plastic removal or crushing into small particles. The surface roughness value and milling force were reduced, improving the surface quality of the processed composite material. The conclusions of the milling test were basically consistent with the simulation results, which prove the correctness and feasibility of the simulation results.