Analysis And Modeling Of Titanium Alloy Laser Heating Assisted Milling Process

The laser assisted machining method has been applied to improve the efficiency of machining thedifficult-to-machine materials such as titanium alloy and to improve the service life of cutting tools.In this paper, laser assisted machining process are researched in theoretical analysis and finiteelement modeling simulation in order to analyze the heat source influence on temperature of cuttingzone when laser assisted cutting, the auxiliary heat source and the cutting heat coupling influence onthe plastic of material, and the influence of the cutting zone temperature, the stress, the strain fieldand the tool cutting force. The research work of this paper is mainly on:1This paper uses the finite element software to simulate numerical distribution of Gaussian laser heatsource model temperature field. And then the order coupled thermo-mechanical finite model of themilling process, the milling force and the temperature of the milling area is established to simulate thewhole machining process of laser assisted milling, regarding the numerical distribution of temperaturefield as the initial temperature field, adopting Johnson-Cook material constitutive law andJohnson-Cook material failure criteria. The temperature, stress, strain, and the force of the millingcutter in the feed direction, respectively from traditional milling and laser assisted milling, arecompared through the results of the simulation calculation.2It verifies the effect of laser heating to soften the surface of material and to decrease the feed force,referring the existing experimental result of the laser assisted titanium alloy milling and comparingwith the cutting force and temperature of the result of the simulation. And it analyzes the changingrelationship between the temperature in front of the cutting area and the feed force, the temperaturedistribution in different depths under the surface of workpiece and across the laser spot center line.3Finally, the simulation results have been compared with the published experimental results, showingthe accuracy of the calculated results in the range of acceptable error rate and the feasibility andeffectivity of the laser assisted machining model.This paper has provided a feasible laser assisted milling order coupled thermo-mechanical finitemodel. It has analyzed the influence of the softened milling area to the stress, strain, temperature andthe decrease of the feed force when the laser assisted milling is used. It also inferred the benefit of thelaser assisted milling such as protecting the tool, decrease of the surface stress, shortening the chip.