Measurements and simulations and deformation field in transient metal cutting

Advanced finite element software makes it possible to perform accurate simulations of orthogonal metal cutting provided all input parameters such as material properties, friction and material separation criteria are known. In principle, such properties can be determined by performing a series of cutting experiments and mechanical property tests, and then iterating the finite element simulations until acceptable agreement is reached. Cutting measurements have generally included only cutting forces and tool-chip temperatures. We hypothesize that by closely coupling simulations to conventional cutting force measurements and with fine scale spatial and temporal experimental measurements of temperature and strain fields, questions related to the choice of parameters in finite element simulations can be resolved. As a step towards that resolution a method for high resolution experimental measurements of temperature and strain fields is presented here. Temperatures of the workpiece and chip are measured during transient metal cutting over areas of 27X27 mum and time scales of 200 ns by using infrared detectors. Three different materials, 1018CR steel, Al6061-T6 and Ti-6Al-4V are tested. A grid method is used to measure deformations in steel with a spatial resolution of 50 mum.