Computational fluid dynamics analysis of working fluid flow and debris movement in wire EDMed kerf

In wire EDM, better exclusion of debris from the machined kerf is very important to obtain a stable machining performance. The purpose of this study is to investigate the fluid flow in the kerf and better jet flushing conditions of working fluid from the nozzles. The flow field and the debris motion in the kerf were analyzed by computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation, comparing with the observation by high-speed video camera. The influence of flow rate of working fluid from nozzles and the nozzle stand-off distance on flow field in the kerf and debris particle motion were discussed.