Simulation of thermal and mechanical workpiece load

This paper presents a method for the simulation of thermal and mechanical load for arbitrary milling operations. In the first part of the paper the modeling of the NC-simulation based approach is presented. A new way of rotational tool modeling from detailed tool geometry representation including technological information about the real tool is shown. Further, the tool is intersected with a dexel discretized workpiece model. Based on this intersection, the contact zone is modeled and analyzed. In the next part of the paper the thermal and mechanical load of the workpiece is modeled. Therefore, for every intersection point a local discretized heat input and mechanical stress tensor representing the workpiece load are modeled based on the technological information stored in the rotational tool. Finally, the approach is verified by the comparison of resulting cutting forces during machining of a thin-walled workpiece. There is a significant correlation between the measured and simulated forces in magnitude and characteristic.