SPH/FE modeling of cutting force and chip formation during thermally assisted machining of Ti6Al4V alloy

SPH method was employed in this study to develop machining models to study the thermally assisted machining of Ti6Al4V process. Both 2D and 3D models were developed for investigations of chip formation and cutting force, respectively. Two sets of machining parameters under four different target initial workpiece temperatures were simulated. Corresponding thermally assisted machining experiments were conducted for the validation of the models. The influence of the initial workpiece temperature on the chip formation and cutting force was studied. The chip formation mechanism and its relationship with the cyclic cutting force were also discussed.