Machining Simulation of Ti-6Al-4V Alloy Using Finite Element Method (FEM)

Machining of titanium alloys remains a challenging task due to its low thermal conductivity and other inheritance properties. This phenomenon often causes the reduction of tool life, increasing production cost, and time. Several factors play a role in determining the tool life, such as cutting speed, feed, chip formation, and tool geometry. The current work investigated the effect of tool geometry and feed to the cutting temperature, force, and chip formation. The finite element method (FEM) was implemented to model the orthogonal cutting process in the titanium alloy (Ti-6Al-4V). We used the Johnson-Cook (J-C) material constitutive model and the Johnson-Cook (J-C) fracture-damage model to simulate the process. Our results demonstrated that at the rake angle of 0°, the cutting force and the cutting temperature reached a maximum value of 490 °C. The temperature decreased to around 370 °C if the cutting rake angle changes to 10°. The feed seems to have a low impact on the temperature. The effect of feed and rake angle was more pronounced in the cutting force.