Simulated and experimental study on the ultrasonic cutting mechanism of aluminum honeycomb by disc cutter

Aluminum honeycomb, as the core part of sandwich structure, has been widely used in aeronautics and astronautics industry owing to its superior properties. Ultrasonic cutting has a great potential to reduce the machining defects relative to traditional milling. To have an insight comprehension on the ultrasonic cutting mechanism of aluminum honeycomb by disc cutter, a finite element model is developed. It is found that the widened cell wall, which is a typical phenomenon, is generated on the machined surface. A plastic deformation model for cell wall was established based on the plastic strain energy theory to study the relationship between the width of machined cell wall and ultrasonic cutting parameters. Experiments are performed to verify the developed models and study the relationship between cell wall morphologies and cutting parameters. According to that, an alternating up and down cutting process and plastic deformation of material are observed, which is confirmed to be the reason of cell wall widening; a better machining quality of cell wall can be achieved utilizing a greater ultrasonic amplitude and a lower feed speed.