Distribution of the electric field and flow field in rotary sinking electrochemical milling with one-sided constraint

Rotary sinking electrochemical (RSEC) milling is a version of electrochemical milling that can be used to machine electrically conductive material without any tool wear. Generally, the material removal rate in RSEC milling is directly proportional to the feeding speed, which is dependent on the distribution of the electric field and flow field in the machining gap. When only the left or right side of the tool is covered by the workpiece, which is named as one-sided constraint mode, the distribution of the electric field and flow field is analyzed for the first time in this study. For the electric field, an obvious bend of the equipotential line at the edge point is observed. This implies a significant increase in the current density. For the flow field, the electrolyte velocity decreases with the increment of covering distance and it is higher in the left-sided constraint mode than that in the right-sided constraint mode. Additionally, the maximum feeding speed and material removal rate at different covering distances and modes are measured experimentally. The results show that the maximum feeding speed decreases with the increase of covering distance, while the highest material removal rate is obtained at the covering distance of 3 mm in the left-sided constraint when the applied voltage is 40 V.