FEM for the Determination of Temperature Distribution in Orthogonal Cutting Process

The study of metal cutting process is primarily aimed at reducing production cost. One way of reducing the cost of production would be to increase the speed at which metal is cut. However, since operating at high speed is found to decrease the tool life, an economic balance which takes into account both the benefits of increased production rate on one hand and the disadvantage of decreased tool life on the other has to be made. Because of the high speeds and the very small sizes involved in the cutting process, experiments in this area are difficult to conduct. Additionally, the high temperature gradient around the cutting edge and tool-chip interface make it impossible to get a complete picture of the temperature distribution experimentally. In analytical approaches also the different velocities of the workpiece and the chip make mathematical modelling of the problem complex. This thesis deals with the details of an analytical approach for determining the temperature distribution in an orthogonal cutting process using Finite Element Method. Making use of the available experimental data, from the literature, a finite element analysis for determining the temperature distribution in the cutting process is developed. The results obtained are in agreement when compared with the experimental and other analytical solutions. Out of the various analytical approaches for determining the cutting temperature, the finite element method seems to give the most complete picture of the temperature distribution