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Influence of discharge gap on material removal and melt pool movement in EDM discharge process

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Abstract

In electrical discharge machining (EDM), gap control is the key to stable processing; the discharge gap plays a significant role in EDM. To determine the influence of the discharge gap on material removal and melt pool movement, which are two fundamental issues in EDM, high-speed photography and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations were used to study the discharge process. Research results demonstrate that the discharge gap has a significant influence on material removal during the discharge process. A smaller gap width produces more and larger removed materials. The influence mechanism of the gap width on material removal is explained as follows. A smaller gap width produces discharge plasma with a smaller diameter and greater heat flux. Discharge with a greater heat flux generates more material removed during the discharge process. In addition, a smaller gap width and greater heat flux produce a stronger interaction of metal vapor jets, generating a stronger shear force acting on the melt pool. The discharge gap also influences the movement of the melt pool and the final topography of the discharge crater through external pressure acting on the melt pool. Smaller gap width produces greater external pressure acting on the melt pool, generating a bowl-shaped melt pool and a discharge crater with a depression in the center and a bulge around the edge. A larger gap width produces less external pressure acting on the melt pool, generating a flat melt pool and a discharge crater with swelling in the center and a depression around the edge.

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source diameter of 16 nm

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source diameter of 20 nm

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source diameter of a 16 nm and b 20 nm, respectively

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Funding

This work was financially supported by the National Science Foundation of China (Nos. 51805164, 51875133) and China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2020M672052).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of High Efficiency and Clean Mechanical Manufacture, Ministry of Education, Shandong University, Jinan, 250061, China

    Xiaoming Yue

  2. School of Mechanical Engineering, Shandong University, Jinan, 250061, China

    Xiaoming Yue, Ji Fan, Zuoke Xu & Zhiyuan Chen

  3. Department of Mechanical Engineering and Automation, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, 150001, China

    Qi Li & Xiaodong Yang

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  1. Xiaoming Yue
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  2. Ji Fan
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  3. Qi Li
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  4. Xiaodong Yang
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  5. Zuoke Xu
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Contributions

Xiaoming Yue: Conceptualization, Methodology, Investigation, Original draft preparation. Ji Fan: Data curation. Qi Li: Validation. Xiaodong Yang: Supervision, Writing-Reviewing and Editing, Funding acquisition. Zuoke Xu, Zhiyuan Chen: Software.

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Correspondence to Xiaodong Yang.

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Yue, X., Fan, J., Li, Q. et al. Influence of discharge gap on material removal and melt pool movement in EDM discharge process. Int J Adv Manuf Technol 119, 7827–7842 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-021-08577-z

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