Experimental Measurements and Theoretical Estimation of Temperature in ECDM Process

Electrochemical discharge can be effectively and economically used for machining of a wide range of conducting and non-conducting materials, ceramics, and composites. This can be also used for selective deposition of metals and micro welding. Its potentials for rapid prototyping of small metallic parts have been vindicated. All these processes require generation of temperatures above the melting temperature of the metal under consideration. In the present work, experimentally measured and theoretically estimated temperature results are presented for electro chemical discharge machining (ECDM) process. In situ temperature measurements are performed for the first time in ECDM, especially, in the machining zone with various temperature sensing schemes. The temperatures at different radii of the work piece are calculated by considering the spark as a constant, circular heat source on the surface of the work piece and considering the heat balance of each discretised element of the work piece. Experimentally measured and theoretically estimated temperature results are comparable.