3D parametric thermal finite element model in turning

The main goal of this paper is to estimate the tool temperature distribution based on a 3D parametric Finite Element (FE) thermal modelling in the case of the longitudinal turning of A304L workpiece material with an uncoated carbide insert. For that, the cutting edge is discretized into several increments and a non-uniform heat flux is applied, since the tool-chip contact length was taken variable along the cutting edge. To study the heat transfer in the cutting tool, two computational steps were considered. The first one involves the exploitation of an analytical thermomechanical model to predict needed main parameters for the present study such: (i) thermal loading zone geometry defined by the contact length and the chip flow angle, (ii) friction coefficient, chip velocity and contact pressure to calculate the non-uniform heat flux. The second step consists in setting up a FE thermal model to determine temperature field generated in the cutting insert. The tool-chip geometry and the thermal loads applied in the second step were provided from the first step. Moreover, a based Abaqus Python Scripting coupling, was used to generate automatically the tool-chip contact surface, and to predict thermal loads and boundary conditions over a wide range of cutting conditions. Finite Element Model permits to predict temperature in the insert in relation to tool geometry and cutting parameters. Maximum temperature values will be used in future work to evaluate tool wear. A good agreement was found when comparing on one side numerical and experimental temperature evolution and on the second side simulated versus analytical one.