Abstract
A numerical model has been proposed to predict the material removal of electric discharge machining process while it is machining a particulate reinforced aluminium 6061 with 10 vol.-% Al2O3. The heating effect of an electric discharge machining spark on the temperature field of the workpiece was analysed using ANSYS software. According to the simulated temperature field profiles, the diameter, depth and volume of the crater created by a single electric discharge machining pulse can all be obtained. The influence of pulse duration and discharge current on the material removal mechanism was theoretically and experimentally investigated. It was found that the experimental results agreed well with the simulated results. The average percentage errors of the crater volume were found to be 3·2% at different discharge current conditions, and 2·5% at different pulse duration conditions.
Acknowledgement
The current paper was under the financial support of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Project No. 51205137 and U1134003).