Study on tool wear and surface roughness in machining of particulate aluminum metal matrix composite-response surface methodology approach

摘要

Metal matrix composites (MMC) have become a leading material among composite materials, and in particular, particle reinforced aluminum MMCs have received considerable attention due to their excellent engineering properties. These materials are known as the difficult-to-machine materials because of the hardness and abrasive nature of reinforcement element-like silicon carbide particles (SiC_p). In this study, an attempt has been made to model the machinability evaluation through the response surface methodology in machining of homogenized 20% SiC_p LM25 Al MMC manufactured through stir cast route. The combined effects of four machining parameters including cutting speed (s), feed rate (f), depth of cut (d), and machining time (t) on the basis of two performance characteristics of flank wear (VB_(max)) and surface roughness (Ra) were investigated. The contour plots were generated to study the effect of process parameters as well as their interactions. The process parameters are optimized using desirability-based approach response surface methodology.