Material removal analysis of hybrid EDM-assisted centrifugal abrasive flow machining process for performance enhancement

Finishing of metallic machine components is a prime requirement for the better performance and longer product life cycle. To get highly finished machine components, a number of conventional and non-conventional finishing processes have evolved in recent times to overcome constraints due to shape and properties of materials. This paper discusses a new hybrid technique, Thermal additive centrifugal abrasive flow machining (TACAFM) which is a combination of centrifugal force-assisted abrasive flow machining and electrical discharge machining (EDM) process. In this process abrasive particles move coaxially with workpiece and also rotate inside the hollow workpiece with the help of a rotating system and also generated thermal effect as in EDM process. Due to the movement of abrasive particles along with rotation, Coriolis effect plays a major role in determining the position of abrasives at any time. Therefore, in the present study, Coriolis component effect is incorporated in the mathematical model to predict the material removal in TACAFM. Also, its parameters, viz current, abrasive concentration, pressure, duty cycle, and rotation of electrode, were optimized using response surface methodology. A simulation model is also presented using Ansys ® 15 software to analyze the effect of temperature around the work surface when varying gap between the electrode and work surface along with rotational speed of electrode. Experimental results show a good agreement with the mathematical model. The experiments conducted on the developed process show average 44.34% improvement in material removal and average 39.74% improvement in surface finish, respectively.