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Estimation of Effect of Process Parameters on Temperature, Thermal and

Residual Stresses in EDMed AISI D2 Steel Components

Conference Paper · December 2010

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 2nd International Conference on Production and Industrial Engineering 657
CPIE-2010
Estimation of effect of process parameters on temperature, thermal and residual
stresses in EDMed AISI D2 steel components
M K Pradhan
Department of Mechanical and Industrial Production Engineering, Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology,
Bhopal-462051, Madhya Pradesh. India
([email protected], [email protected] )

Abstract - In this research the effect of input variables recast layer with micro- cracks on machined surface.
namely: discharge current, pulse duration on thermal and Besides, due to this non-uniform heating and hasty
residual stresses has been investigated. A finite element cooling of material during this EDM process generates a
modeling for the EDM process is presented to predict the multi-layered Heat Affected Zone (HAZ) in the sub
responses of a single-pulse discharge and results concerning surface of the work piece and thus produces thermal
the temperature distribution, the thermal and residual
stress. If these stresses overpass the yield stress of the
stresses of AISI D2 steel machined by EDM have been
depicted. The effects of the process variables on temperature material, they will remain as residual stress in the work
distribution, thermal stress distribution and residual stresses piece during subsequent cooling, which play a key role in
have been reported. The model has been validated using fatigue crack growth, crack closure, and fracture. Usually,
experimental data for and residual stresses using X-ray residual stresses are self-equilibrating stress exists within
diffraction method. a component when no external tractions are applied to it.
The state of the residual stress typically comes up as a
Keywords - Electrical discharge machining, Thermal cumulative effect of the processes it has undergone, and
stress, Residual stress. the material properties. The residual stresses are
particularly detrimental when they are tensile in nature, as
I. INTRODUCTION it instigates the crack and become critical if subjected to
fatigue load. Prediction and measurement of residual
Electrical discharge machining is a most primitive stress in engineering components have been a pursuit of
non-conventional machining process, where material is researchers as residual stresses not only have an effect on
removed by a succession of electrical discharges occurring the initiation and onset of the propagation of surface crack
between an electrode and a work piece. EDM is used but also change the path/growth of the crack as it grows
widely in machining conductive hard metals and alloys in below the surface.
aerospace, automotive and die industries. It is regarded as Due to the complexity and highly stochastic nature of
the “last resort” and most conventional non conventional the process that involve relations of thermal, mechanical,
machining process. EDM comprises the complex chemical and electrical phenomena simultaneously, the
interaction of many physical phenomena. The electric mechanism of this process is not completely understood
spark among the anode and the cathode produce huge heat yet. Therefore, experimental trials are required to set up
over a tiny area of the work piece. A fraction of the the understanding and to get optimum conditions for an
produced heat is conducted through the cathode, a fraction EDM operation, resulting in increase in lead-time and cost
is conducted through the anode, and the rest is dissipating for the final product. Thus is customary to make efforts on
by the dielectric. The duration of the spark is of the order modeling the process to understand the behavior of
of microseconds and during this time a plasma channel is process and influence of the machining parameters on the
formed between the tool and the work-piece. Thus the responses in order to trim down the experimental cost
modeling of EDM process is indispensable to understand associated. In this work, a finite element modeling of the
this process which should be able to predict the EDM process using ANSYS software is presented.
temperature generated in the workpiece surface, thermal The formation of surface cracks has attributed to the
and the residual stresses induced in the part as a result of differentials of high contraction stresses exceeding the
the non-uniform heating and cooling from the discharge. materials ultimate tensile stress within the white layer [1].
Real EDM requires numerous successive pulses to achieve Mamalis et al. [2] experimentally investigated on low-
the required final surface. This model, however, has been carbon steel St37, medium carbon steel C45 and alloyed
developed to first predict the results of a single pulse. steel 100Cr6 work piece and found that the peak stresses
After validating the predictions for a single pulse using are almost independent of the discharge energy and
results from single-pulse experiments the model will be approach the ultimate tensile strength of the material.
extended to predict the effects of multiple pulses. The Rebelo et al. [3] in his investigation using XRD
high-density thermal energy discharge produces during methodology found that the residual stress of steel work
machining causes the local temperature in the work piece piece increases from the bulk material to a maximum and
gets close to the vaporization temperature of the work decreases again approaching the surface. Also the peak
piece, leads to the thermal erosion and also produces stresses are almost independent of the discharge energy
 2nd International Conference on Production and Industrial Engineering 658
CPIE-2010
and the greater the discharge energy, the greater the depth piece, the heat propagates symmetrically in all direction,
at which the maximum value of residual stress occurs. A so taking advantage of its symmetry a small cylindrical
qualitative relationship with the operating parameters was portion of the work piece around the spark is used as the
presented by Ekmekci et al. [4] using DIN 1.2738 (AISI domain as shown in Fig. 1. A convective heat transfer
P20) work piece material. For solving these problem boundary conditions are applied on the surface that is
present trends of most of the research work are devoted to exposed to the dielectric. All of the equations in this study
numerical models based the finite element method. Yadav are based on the cylindrical coordinate system, as shown
et al. [5] applied FEM to investigate the thermal stress in Fig. 2.
generated by a single spark in EDM of Cr die steel. A
fraction (8%), of the produced heat is conducted through ii. Boundary condition
the cathode a fraction (18%), is conducted through the Fig. 2 demonstrates a schematic diagram of the
anode and the rest to the dielectric [6, 7 and 8]. thermal model with the applied boundary conditions
Though there are several attempts have been made to during heating cycle. During the spark on-time (heating
model the EDM process and the influence of machining cycle) on the top surface Γ1, the energy transfer to the
parameters on responses, a little research has been work piece is represented by a Gaussian heat flux
reported relating to finite element (ANSYS) modeling of distribution up to spark radius Rp. Beyond Rp, the heat
residual stresses on AISI D2 tool steel yet. D2 steel was loss to the coolant is modeled using convective boundary
selected due to its emergent range of applications in the conditions. However, during cooling cycle, on the entire
field of manufacturing tools in mould industries. In this top surface Γ1, the convection heat transfer takes place
research, an attempt is made to investigate the effects of due to the cooling effect caused by the dielectric fluid. No
most significant machining parameters (pulse current and heat transfer occurs across surfaces on Γ2 and Γ3, because
pulse duration) on the various changes and stress they are consider to be sufficiently far away for any heat
developed in the beneath the spark by a single spark FEA transfer to take place as the duration of spark is very
model for EDM. The major aim of developing this model small. The boundary Γ4 is the axis of symmetry, hence the
is to predict the nature of residual and thermal stresses heat flux has been taken as zero as there is no net heat
occurring during EDM. The FEA model is then used to gain or loss across this boundary.
study the relation between these parameters and maximum
temperature attains, thermal stresses generated, at the end
of heating cycle and residual stress produced at the end of
cooling cycle. To establish the thermal and residual
stresses in the work piece during EDM, the temperature
distribution at the end of pulse duration in the work piece
has to be estimated first latter on after cooling the residual
stress is determined. In addition, residual stress which is
the main factor responsible for component failure, and the
location of tensile peak stress, at the end of cooling cycle
are investigated and verified experimentally.

II. THEORY AND FORMULATION

If the total power which is used only by one single spark
with the radius (R) is known, then the heat flux q w (r) at
radius r is given by Figure 1 Schematic sketch of the physical model.
  r  
2

q w (r )  R 2 exp  4.5 R   (2(1)


4.55Pf U b I p
  )
p 
  p  

Where Pf is the percentage of heat input distributed to the
work piece, Ub the breakdown discharge voltage (different
from the applied voltage), Rp the spark radius and Ip is the
current. The Pf value has been previously determined by
Yadav et al. to be 0.08 for their theoretical work of
conventional EDM.
i. Thermal model
The domain is treated as a semi-infinite object in
considering the microcosmic characteristics of the single
discharge. The upper surface of the cylinder is the
machining surface and its centre is the focus of the ionized
channel. When a single spark is incident in to the work
 2nd International Conference on Production and Industrial Engineering 659
CPIE-2010
Figure 2 An axisymmetric model for the EDM process i. Effect of current:
simulation. The variation of temperature at the end of spark with
depth of the work piece has been plotted presented in
III. METHODOLOGY Fig.3. From these plots, it can be observed that with the
For modeling and simulate the process a finite element increase in Ip the peak temperature goes on increasing.
based model is used to estimate the temperature, thermal This is due to the fact that, with the increase in Ip the
stress and residual stresses distribution developed due to magnitude of the heat energy transferred to the work piece
electrical discharge machining. Commercial finite element increases. From the figure, it is observed that temperature
software ANSYS 12 is used for the same in which the shows inverse exponential relation with respect to the
Gaussian heat input model is used to approximate the heat axial distance.
from the plasma. The radial co ordinate depicted as x axis
and axial coordinate is y-axis. For this purpose, the
thermo-physical properties of the workpiece were
considered temperature dependent, and the convection
phenomenon was also considered external surface which
are exposed to the dielectric. A direct thermal-structural
analysis is performed in this investigation. Conduction
heat transfer within the workpiece is governed by the
diffusion equation. Results are obtained by using thermal-
structural coupled field elements and all of the boiled
material and a fraction of melted material are removed
from the domain at the end of pulse duration. Following
assumptions are made due to the random and complex
nature of EDM.
- The domain is considered axisymmetric. Figure 3 The effect of Ip on the temperature variation with depth
- The material of the workpiece homogenous and
isotropic. ii. Effect of pulse duration:
- The workpiece material is stress-free before EDM. The effect of pulse duration is presented along the depth
- The heat transfer to the workpiece is by conduction. for Ip = 9A for Ton = 20 µs and 100 µs. It could be noted
- Gaussian heat flux distribution on spark incident that if Ton is higher, the spark radius R will also be larger
surface of the workpiece material during pulse time and the heat will be distributed to a larger area, (as the
period. plasma channel becomes wider with increase of Ton, the
- Inertia and body force effects are negligible during heat flux distribution becomes less steep), which may not
stress development. produce the higher peak temperature, but will remove
A tiny cylindrical portion of the workpiece beneath of more material. In this figure presented, it can be clearly
the spark is taken as the domain. Energy portion (8%) seen that the profile of Ton =100 µs, though more heat is
transmits to the workpiece as heat input and pressure serve produced, but the peak temperature approaches 4000K.
the thermal and solid boundary conditions respectively. However, the profile of Ton=20 µs with lower heat
The heat loss due to dielectric liquid on the non-spark supplied to a radius of 75 µm for a very short time, thus
incident surface is modeled using convective boundary produces a peak temperature of slightly higher than
conditions. Other boundaries are such distances away 4000K. This may be attributed to, though less amount of
from the heat source where there is no heat transfer across heat is produced and the heat is concentrated to smaller
them. area, produce slightly higher peak temperature, than that
for larger Ton.
IV. EFFECT OF MACHINING PARAMETERS ON
TEMPERATURE PROFILE V. EFFECT OF MACHINING PARAMETERS ON
The variation of temperature along the line of symmetry THERMAL STRESS
with respect to the depth of the work piece has been Gaussian heat source, believed to be closer to the real
presented before material ejection in this section for life situation, is showing steep temperature gradients
different pulse current and pulse duration. The peak within the spark radius zone. These steep gradients are
temperature and its distribution depends upon the amount considered to be the main source of induced thermal
of spark energy supplied to work piece and hence the stresses in the work piece just after the material ejection.
pulse current and pulse duration has a significant impact However, it was not possible to validate the thermal stress
on the temperature profile which are explained in the distributions in the work piece, as no results
subsequent section. (experimental/theoretical) are available for thermal
stresses developed during EDM. Fig.4. corresponds to the
nature of the thermal stress variation in radial direction
 2nd International Conference on Production and Industrial Engineering 660
CPIE-2010
along the centerline of work piece. The machining very interesting to observe that the magnitudes of the
conditions are stated in the plot. It is noted that the residual stress for all four cases are found to be
thermal stresses obtained for all cases are compressive in approximately 600 Map. Thus, it can be concluded from
nature near the crater with the maximum values of the this observation that the intensity of the peak stresses is
stress are -348 MPa for Ip=1A and Ton=20µs, and the found to be unaffected with respect to the magnitude of
value gradually becomes tensile and then asymptotically the spark energy produced. This peak intensity of the
become stress free with the increases in depth. The trends stress indicates the hot strength of the material machined.
of thermal stresses in other machining parameter setting However, it is observed that as the spark energy increases,
are similar. It could be clearly noticed that the profile is the depth at which the residual stress reaches maximum,
shifting outwards (depth where maximum compressive has been found to be increase. Subsequently, residual
stress occur varies from 7.59 µm to 16.05 µm for 20 µs stresses fall rapidly to fairly low values of compressive
and from 10.95 µm to 40.78 µm for 100 µs) indicating residual stresses. Fig. 5 illustrates the residual thermal
that with the increase in Ip, as the spark energy increases, stress in the axial direction. Around the crater, tensile
produces higher gradient of heat flux that propagates to stresses are present, but they are not as large as those
more depth. Similar trend is also observed for Ton beneath the adjacent surface. There stresses reach a
(corresponding depth varies from 7.59 µm to 10.95 µm for maximum value and then gradually decreases as the depth
1 A and 16.04 µm to 40.78 µm for 9A) where with the increases and become compressive in nature. On further
increase of pulse on time, the stresses propagate to more increase of depth, this stress asymptotically diminishes to
depth. Fig.4. represents the thermal stress directly a zero value.
following the heat flux in axial direction. Similar trend has
been observed for the thermal stress distributions in radial
direction.

Figure 5 Effect of Ip and Ton on residual stress

VII. CONCLUSION
Figure 4 Effect of Ip and Ton on thermal stress In the present analysis, a two-dimensional axisymmetric
model was developed to predict the EDM characteristics
The maximum compressive stresses are located on the such as temperature, thermal and residual stresses. For the
surface of the newly created crater and the magnitude is development of the model well-known finite element
comparatively low. Also, with the increase in Ip from 1A commercial software ANSYS 12.0 is used to simulate the
to 9A the depth of maxi- mum thermal stress increases effects of a single spark for AISI D2 steel. The important
from 30.33 to 48.11 µm and 43.79 to 122.92 µm for 20 µs features of the process such as temperature-dependent
and 100 µs, respectively. Similarly, with the increase of material properties, shape and size of heat source
Ton from 20 µs to 100 µs the depth of maximum thermal (Gaussian heat distribution), percentage fraction of heat
stress increases from 30.33 to 43.79 µm and 48.11 to contribution to the work piece, pulse on/off time, material
122.92 µm for 1A and 9A, respectively, confirming the ejection fraction are taken into account in the development
claim that with the increase in both Ip and Ton, the depth of the model. The temperature profiles and material
of maximum thermal stress increases. The shear stress σrz transformations that occur in the work piece material due
in the line of symmetry is found to be zero. to high temperature, deformations and transient operation
are analysed. In this analysis it is assumed that 50% of the
VI. EFFECT OF MACHINING PARAMETERS ON molten material is ejected from the material and rest is
RESIDUAL STRESS recast on the work- piece. There is a sharp temperature
Investigating the plot in Fig. 5 minutely, it is found that rise during the heating cycle and then it falls rapidly
radial components of the residual stresses in EDM are during quenching. It is observed that the compressive
predominantly tensile in nature. The magnitude starts to thermal stresses are developed beneath the crater and the
increase from the top surface to its maximum value. It is tensile stresses are occur away from the axis of symmetry.
FEM results show that the peak temperature sharply
 2nd International Conference on Production and Industrial Engineering 661
CPIE-2010
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