Thermal modeling of drilling process in titanium alloy (Ti-6Al-4V)

In drilling in titanium alloys, heat trapped in a hole adversely affects tool life, hole surface quality and integrity. Therefore, modeling temperature distribution in drilling is vital for effective heat dissipation and improving quality of drilled surfaces. The existing numerical and finite element models consider only frictional heat, whereas the effect of shear heat generation and tertiary heat generation is neglected. In the present work, a comprehensive thermal model of the drilling process is developed by considering all heat generated in shear, friction and tertiary zones. The drill cutting edges are divided into a series of independent elementary cutting tools (ECT). The calculated heat flux loads are applied on an individual ECT in the finite element model to determine the temperature distribution and the maximum temperature around the cutting edge. The temperature in the drill was also measured experimentally with the help of an Infrared (IR) camera. The results of numerical simulations lie within the error of similar to 8.75% when compared to the prior studies, and similar to 5.41% when compared to our experimental work. The thermal model gives the temperature distribution, and the maximum temperature observed at the corner of cutting edge was 604.2 degrees C at a cutting speed of 35 m/min.