The coupled effect of magnetic field, electric field, and electrolyte motion on the material removal amount in electrochemical machining

摘要

Electrochemical machining (ECM) has a strong advantage in dealing with difficult-to-machine materials and complex shaped parts. In order to improve machining accuracy, some researchers, based on the principle of interactions between the magnetic field and electric field, proposed the magnetic field-assisted ECM technology that is advantageous in improving surface roughness and facilitating material removal amount. Pitifully, little attention has been attached to effects of the coupled magnetic field, electric field, and electrolyte motion on the amount of materials removed. This paper aims to find out how arrangements of magnetic fields and coupled of the three energy (which were magnetic field, electric field, and electrolyte motion) will work on the amount of material removed in ECM. Here established a Navier-Stokes equation and a model of material removal amount in the anode under the electromagnetic field. Physical and mathematical models of the electrolyte's flow characteristics and material removal amount were constructed through the COMSOL Multiphysics software, and simulations were carried out. An experiment was implemented to test models and the simulations. Simulation results indicated that different arrangements of the magnetic field had delivered different impacts on flow characteristics of the flow field and material removal amount. Experiment results revealed that the material removal amount had increased regardless of arrangements of magnetic fields and that the flow rate of the electrolyte had played a role in this connection. The study involved in this paper showed that the introduction of the magnetic field worked favorably to lift the material removal amount and that arrangements of magnetic fields also had the same effect in this regard. Also, it was found that a growing flow rate of the electrolyte had hindered the increases of the material removal amount.