Fuzzy logic modelling of sustainable performance measure (MRR) during WEDM of Ti/6Al/4V alloy

Wire-cut electrical discharge machining (WEDM) has become an indispensable machine tool in modern manufacturing industries. The growing demand for Ti-alloy components produced by WEDM in defence, medial, automotive industries etc necessitate extensive study on performance characteristics of WEDM process. Soft-computing based fuzzy logic (FL) technique is considered as an effective modelling tool for prediction of performance measures. This paper presents development of FL prediction model for material removal rate (MRR) as a sustainable performance measure in WEDM of Ti/6Al/4V alloy. The Mamdani type fuzzy inference system consisting of 4-inputs, 1-output and 180rules was used for developing FL prediction model. Validation of the developed prediction through confirmation experiments showed average percentage error as 5.44%; while the minimum and maximum error was recorded as 1.54% and 7.69% respectively. With 94.56% model accuracy, predictive performance of the FL model was found better than regression model. Study of surface plots of FIS showed that higher levels of pulse-on-time coupled with low levels of pulse-off-time result in increased MRR values. This is attributed to high energy sparks produced due to longer duration for which current is supplied and faster flushing off molten material by di-electric fluid as duration between the two pluses is smaller. The observation is also supported by contour plots obtained by the experimental result. (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the International Conference on Materials, Manufacturing and Mechanical Engineering for Sustainable Developments-2020.