Finite Element Modeling of stresses induced by high speed machining with round edge cutting tools

High speed machining (HSM) produces parts with substantially higher fatigue strength; increased subsurface micro-hardness and plastic deformation, mostly due to the ploughing of the cutting tool associated with residual stresses, and can have far more superior surface properties than surfaces generated by grinding and polishing. In this paper, a dynamics explicit Arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian (ALE) based Finite Element Method (FEM) modeling is employed. FEM techniques such as adaptive meshing, explicit dynamics and fully coupled thermal-stress analysis are combined to realistically simulate high speed machining with an orthogonal cutting model. The Johnson-Cook model is used to describe the work material behavior. A detailed friction modeling at the tool-chip and tool-work interfaces is also carried. Work material flow around the round edge-cutting tool is successfully simulated without implementing a chip separation criterion and without the use of a remeshing scheme. Finite Element modeling of stresses and resultant surface properties induced by round edge cutting tools is performed as case studies for high speed machining of AISI 1045 and AISI 4340 steels, and Ti6Al4V titanium alloy.