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Jet electrochemical milling of Ti-6Al-4 V alloy with ultra-high current density

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Abstract

Electrochemical machining (ECM) is an efficient technique for machining hard-to-cut metallic materials such as titanium alloys. Based on ECM, jet electrochemical machining (jet-ECM) in which electrolyte is continuously ejected from the cathode tool nozzle improves the mass transfer. In jet-ECM, the electrolyte usually forms a flow along the workpiece after the impacting, leading to a weak current density distribution which surrounds the machining region. In jet-ECM of titanium alloys, stray corrosion easily occurs on the un-machined surface around the machining region as a result of the susceptibility of titanium alloys to stray current. In this paper, a method for rapidly obtaining the ideal jet reflection shape by applying an ultra-high current density is proposed. This method effectively separates the reflected electrolyte from the workpiece, thus protecting the un-machined surface from stray corrosion. Simulations with multiple coupled physical fields are established to investigate the interactions among the electric field distribution, flow field distribution, and geometry deformation in jet-ECM. A series of observational experiments are carried out to verify the simulation results. To study the influence of the current density on the machining characteristics, the performance of jet-ECM using current densities from 200 to 600 A/cm2 was discussed in terms of the achievable groove dimensions, material removal rate, current efficiency, and energy efficiency. The results reveal that a proper jet reflection shape can be rapidly formed in jet-ECM by applying an ultra-high current density, and the grooves fabricated in this way are free from stray corrosion and possess shape edges.

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Funding

This work was supported by Defense Industrial Technology Development Program (Grant No. JCKY2021605B003), Science Center for Gas Turbine Project (P2022-A-IV-002-001), National Natural Science Foundation of China for Creative Research Groups (Grant No. 51921003), and Postgraduate Research & Practice Innovation Program of Jiangsu Province (Grant No. KYCX20_0181).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing, 210016, China

    Huanghai Kong & Ningsong Qu

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  1. Huanghai Kong
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  2. Ningsong Qu
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Contributions

Huanghai Kong: conceptualization, methodology, investigation, data curation, experiment, writing-original draft. Ningsong Qu: review and editing, supervision, funding acquisition.

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Correspondence to Ningsong Qu.

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Kong, H., Qu, N. Jet electrochemical milling of Ti-6Al-4 V alloy with ultra-high current density. Int J Adv Manuf Technol 129, 4091–4100 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-023-12607-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-023-12607-3

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