Modeling, simulation and investigation of temperature profile during WEDM discharging for stainless steel grade AISI316 material

摘要

In this work, temperature profile of AISI 316 tool steel WEDM was model using FEM. Stainless steel grade AISI 316 was selected due to its emergent range of applications in the field of manufacturing tools in die and mould industries. Machining of AISI 316 using WEDM is a challenging task. Experimentation on AISI 316 with WEDM is costly as well as time-consuming. This study aims to investigate the temperature profile for AISI 316 material during WEDM discharging by taking a discharge current, pulse on time, pulse off time and heat input to a workpiece as input parameters. An axisymmetric 2D model for WEDM has been developed using the finite element modelling (FEM). Results concerning the temperature distribution. It was found that the peak temperature sharply increases with discharge current while with a lower pulse on time, it is slightly higher than that of a higher pulse on time. The model is able to predict the shape and size of the crater that is formed by a single spark as a result of the material removal. The crater shape was developed using simulated temperature profiles to estimate the volume removed in a single crater. Finally, as temperature increases due to increase in discharge current, the volume removed by single crater also increases.