International Journal of Materials Forming and Machining Processes

Volume 3 • Issue 1 • January-June 2016

Simulation of Oblique Cutting in

High Speed Turning Processes
Usama Umer, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

ABSTRACT

A Finite Element Model is developed for Oblique cutting process in high speed turning of H-13 tool
steel. The material model used for workpiece is elastic-thermoplastic including the strain rate sensitivity
effect. In order to predict the tool performance, tool is considered as non-rigid and direct stresses
are determined around the tool tip. Lagrangian approach is utilized along with adaptive meshing to
minimize element distortion around the tool tip. The model predicts cutting forces in 3-directions at
different inclination angles. The results are compared with experimental data and found to be in good
agreement. The model is also able to predict stress and temperature contours in the workpiece and the
cutting tool which help in predicting workpiece surface integrity and performance of the cutting tool.

Keywords
Finite Element (FE) Model, H-13, High Speed Turning, Oblique Cutting

1 INTRODUCTION

Finite element methods are being widely used to model and optimize the machining processes for
the last three decades. Most of the work however is limited to orthogonal cutting which needs a two-
dimensional model and plane strain formulation. However majority of the real world applications
require an oblique cutting operation with a non-straight cutting edge. Usually cutting takes place on
more than one cutting edge and the chip flow cannot be simulated under a two-dimensional scheme.
In order to optimize machining processes three-dimensional models are indispensable that are capable
to simulate three-dimensional chip flow using more than one cutting edge.
Both analytical and numerical methods have been used in the literature to model oblique cutting
processes. An analytical model was developed by Moufki et al. (Moufki, Devillez, Dudzinski, &
Molinari, 2004) based on steady state cutting and continuous chip phenomenon. The chip formation
was realized by the shearing at a thin deformation zone called primary shear zone. The deformation at
the tool-chip interface was not considered in the model. However the predicted cutting forces are found
to be in good agreement with the experimental results for different kind of chip morphologies. Molinari
and Moufki (Molinari & Moufki, 2005; Moufki & Molinari, 2005) developed a modified version of
the Moufki’s model (Moufki, et al., 2004) in which the round nose cutting edge is decomposed into
a set of cutting edge elements. These local cutting edges produced elementary chips and the global
chip flow has been defined using interaction between adjacent chip elements. The model was able
to predict cutting forces, chip flow direction, contact between tool and workpiece and temperature
distribution along the rake face. These models (Molinari & Moufki, 2005; Moufki, et al., 2004;
Moufki & Molinari, 2005) assume a rigid, visco-plastic workpiece material, hence unable to predict
residual stresses distributions. A three dimensional FEM model was developed by Fang and Zeng
(Fang & Zeng, 2005) based on coupled thermo-elastic-plastic material flow. The model utilized a

DOI: 10.4018/IJMFMP.2016010102

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 International Journal of Materials Forming and Machining Processes
Volume 3 • Issue 1 • January-June 2016

rigid tool and hence unable to simulate stresses inside the cutting tool. Cutting forces were measured
at different inclination angles of the tool. The model was however, not validated experimentally. Zou
et al. (Zou, Yellowley, & Seethaler, 2009) made a new oblique cutting model by using an upper bound
approach. They introduced two new variables based on process kinematics that replaces chip flow
angle and coefficient of friction in the traditional scheme. The chip flow angles predicted from the
new model were found to be comparable with the experimental results.
In numerical modeling methods, both finite difference methods (FDM) and finite element methods
(FEM) have been used to model oblique cutting processes. An FDM model to predict temperature
fields in oblique cutting was developed by Lazoglu and Islam (Lazoglu & Islam, 2012). The proposed
a new method based on elliptical structural grid generation and the computational expense was found
to be much less as compared to the conventional FE models. The temperature predictions were found
to be in good agreement with the experimental data using the proposed finite difference method.
Li and shih (Li & Shih, 2006) developed a 3D finite element model (FEM) using AdvantEdge® to
simulate oblique turning of titanium. The model can predict cutting forces, temperature at the tool-
chip interface and chip thickness and the effect of various process parameters and cutting geometries
can be investigated. In addition to continuous chip formation, serrated chips were also modeled. All
the results are found to be in close agreement with the experimental observations. In addition to
traditional Lagrangian scheme, Arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian (ALE) method was also employed
by researchers to model oblique cutting processes. An ALE model for oblique cutting of AISI 4340
with cemented carbide tools was developed by Llanos et al. (Llanos, Villar, Urresti, & Arrazola,
2009). Chip flow angles and cutting forces were predicted with different cutting parameters and tool
geometries. Overall a good correlation was found with the experimental findings.
This study aims to model oblique cutting process in high speed turning operations for H-13
tool steel. Unlike ALE models which are computationally expensive, the developed model uses
a Lagrangian approach with element deletion technique. The model is able to predict initial chip
formation, chip growth and steady state chip formation and does not need any prior assumption
regarding the chip flow. The accuracy of the model is verified by comparing cutting, feed and radial
forces with the experimental data. In addition tool performance and surface integrity of the workpiece
is analyzed using stress and temperature distribution in the workpiece and the cutting tool.

2 EXPERIMENTAL SETUP

Experiments were conducted on hardened AISI H-13 tool steel tubes (49 HRC) using PCBN triangular
tool inserts having an edge chamfer of 0.1mm x 25º. The properties and composition of the workpiece
and tool materials are listed in Table 1.
Cutting speed, feed rate, inclination angle are taken as input variable for the Taguchi’s orthogonal
L9 array as shown in Table 2. A constant depth of cut of 0.5 mm and rake angle of -7° is employed
for all experimental runs. Cutting, feed and thrust forces were measured, using a Kistler model 9257B
force dynamometer.
The 5017B dual-mode charge amplifier was used to process the force signals from the
dynamometer. A data acquisition system consisting of a data acquisition card and software (Dynoware)
was utilized to get the force signals and generate the sampled data for the analysis.

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Table 1. Composition and properties workpiece and cutting tool materials

AISI H13 PCBN

Composition (%) C 0.32-0.42 Si 0.80 1.20 Cr 4.5-5.5 CBN 65,
TiC 35
Density (kg/m3) 7800 4370
Young‘s Modulus (GPa) 211 588
Thermal conductivity (W/m/ ºC) 37 44
Specific heat (J/Kg/ºC) 560 750
Hardness (HRC*/HV) 49* 3500

Table 2. Selected cutting conditions for the cutting force measurements

S.No. Inclination Angle λs (°) Feed Rate f (mm/rev) Cutting Speed V (mm/min)
1 0 0.05 200
2 0 0.15 250
3 0 0.25 300
4 5 0.05 250
5 5 0.15 300
6 5 0.25 200
7 10 0.05 300
8 10 0.15 200
9 10 0.25 250

3 FINITE ELEMENT MODEL

The FE model developed was based on Coupled temperature displacement analysis available in
ABAQUS/Explicit®. The interaction between the tool and workpiece was modeled using Lagrangian
approach in which the workpiece is fixed and the tool moves with constant velocity. No shear failure was
assumed inside the chip and a continuous chip formation took place.(Umer, 2012). The material flow
for the workpiece was modeled using an elastic-thermoplastic constitutive law called Johnson Cook
flow model. This model is mostly employed for high speed deformation problem with temperature
effects (E.-G. Ng & Aspinwall, 2002);

  ε     T − Troom  m 
σ =  A + Bε  1 + C ln  1000   1 −  Tmelt − Troom  
n
(1)
     

where ε is the equivalent plastic strain, ε the equivalent plastic strain rate, and T the operating
temperature. The Johnson Cook flow model consists of five material constants. The first term in the
equation accounts for general hardening law with initial yield stress (A), strain hardening parameter
(B) and strain hardening exponent (n). The second term accounts for the strain rate hardening effect
which includes strain rate hardening constant (C). The last term is added to include the thermal
softening effect which is given by the temperature dependency coefficient (m).

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Volume 3 • Issue 1 • January-June 2016

The chip formation from the workpiece was realized by incorporating Johnson and Cook shear
failure model. The model is based on predicting equivalent plastic strain at failure and is supposed to
be a function of strain, strain rate, temperature and pressure (Pantalé, Bacaria, Dalverny, Rakotomalala,
& Caperaa, 2004). The damage parameter is obtained for each element and is given by

∆ε
D=∑ (2)
∆εf

where ∆ε is the increment of equivalent plastic strain during an integration step, and ∆ε f is the
equivalent strain to fracture, under the current conditions. Fracture occurs when the damage parameter
equals to one and such elements are deleted from the simulation. The failure strain for the Johnson
Cook shear model is given by

   
 ε   T −T 
m

 
(
εf = D1 + D 2 exp D3 σ
∗
)1 + D4 ln  1 − D

T
room
  (3)
  
5
 − Troom
 ε  

melt

where εo is the strain rate at some reference value and σ ∗ accounts for pressure to equivalent stress
ratio. D1to D5 are material dependent parameters and usually obtained by uni- axial tensile and
torsional testing.
Zorev’s sliding-sticking friction model wass utilized in the simulation. According to Zorev the
division of sliding and sticking region is given by (E.-G. Ng & Aspinwall, 2002):

s=μp when μp < τ max (sliding friction)

s= τ max when μp ≥ τ max

(sticking friciton) (4)

where s, p and τmax are the friction, normal and equivalent shear stresses at the tool rake face. A
constant coefficient of friction (μ) value of 0.3 was used in all simulations.
C3D8RT continuum elements with reduced integration and temperature degree of freedom were
selected for the workpiece and the cutting tool. As the chip separation was realized using element
deletion method, a sharp tool needed to model the cutting phenomenon as shown in Figure 1(a). An
Intel core i5 computer system with 16 GB of RAM was utilized for the simulation tasks. The job was
run with 03 processors using domain level parallelization.

4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

Figure 1(b) shows the deformed mesh after 0.6ms of cutting time at speed of 250 m/min, feed rate
of 0.25 mm/rev and oblique angle of 10°. High deformation of the workpiece material can be seen
at the tool cutting edge. The chip flow angle is 25° and it is found out by taking average of the nodal
velocity vectors of the contact elements at the tool chip interface as shown in Figure 2. Chip flow
angle does not change much with speed and feed rate and largely depends on inclination angle as
shown in Table 3.

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Figure 1. Undeformed (a) and deformed (b) mesh of the workpiece and the cutting tool

Figure 2. Chip flow velocity vectors and the cutting tool direction

Table 3. Variation of chip flow angles with inclination angles obtained from simulations

Inclination angle 0° 5° 10°

Chip flow angle 16° 20.5° 25°

Table 4 details the resultant forces obtained by experiments and simulations for the experimental
plan. A good correlation has been found between experiments and simulations. The 3D FE model
developed for oblique turning operation is able to simulate the phenomenon with reasonable degree
of accuracy with an average error of around 10%. In addition the effect of varying input parameters
is found to be very much similar as replicated by experimental runs. However, FEM underestimates
the cutting forces in all cases. This is due to the adoption of chip separation technique which lessens
the load on the tool tip upon element deletion. Although no experimental setup was arranged to

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Table 4. Cutting forces (N) and temperatures (°C) obtained from experiments and simulations

S.No. Fc_Exp Fc_Sim Ff_Exp Ff_Sim Fr_Exp Fr_Sim T_sim

1 244 220 113 103 17 11 558
2 459 415 141 133 55 49 641
3 613 582 162 152 78 71 721
4 228 204 73 68 21 15 612
5 420 386 139 130 73 68 704
6 606 549 158 146 90 83 582
7 208 198 101 97 20 17 691
8 405 367 137 124 80 72 568
9 557 508 132 117 103 89 684

validate maximum temperature at the tool chip interface obtained from simulations, the range of
values obtained are in close agreement with the experimental findings of the previous research work
(E. G. Ng, Aspinwall, Brazil, & Monaghan, 1999; Özel, 2003).
The validity of the FE model is also analyzed by performing ANOVA for cutting force and
temperature results obtained from the FE models. From Table 5 it can be seen that for cutting force,
feed rate has the largest influence as compared to cutting speed and inclination angle. Cutting force
found to be decreased a bit by increasing the inclination angle whereas cutting speed has negligible
effect on the cutting force. These observations are in close agreements with the experimental finding
of many researchers.
In a similar fashion, for temperature results obtained from FE simulations, cutting speed has
found out be the largest influence as compared to feed rate and inclination angle (see Table 6). Tool-
interface temperature shows rapid increase with the increase of cutting speed. Feed rate also affects
the interface temperature but the percentage contribution is very small as compared to cutting speed.
This is mainly due to decrease in specific cutting energy of the workpiece material with increasing
feed rate. Lastly the cutting temperature is found to be unaffected by changing the inclination angle
as shown by the negligible percentage contribution value.
Figure 3 shows the temperature contours when machining H-13 with inclination angle of 5°,
feed rate of 0.25 mm/rev and cutting speed of 200 m/min. Temperature contours at the two shear
zones are found to be very different. Secondary shear zone temperatures (tool-chip interface) are
found to be much higher as compared to the primary shear zone. This is mainly due to extra work
against frictional forces at the secondary shear zone. It is quite obvious that higher temperatures are
limited to the tool-chip contact area. The temperature starts decreasing as the chip curls away from
the rake face of the cutting tool.

Table 5. ANOVA results for cutting force measurement obtained from simulations

Source DOF SS MS F-test p F 0.05 Contribution %

λs 2 3464 1732 0.0599 0.942388 5.14 1.96
f 2 172694 86347 124.0618 1.32E-05 5.14 97.64
V 2 278 139 0.0047 0.995292 5.14 0.16
Error 2 434 217
Total 8 176870

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Table 6. ANOVA results for maximum temperature measurement obtained from simulations

Source DOF SS MS F-test p F0.05 Contribution %

λs 2 338 169 0.032758 0.967944 5.14 0.01
f 2 2673 1336 0.280589 0.76473 5.14 8.55
V 2 27883 13941 24.8363 0.001252 5.14 89.22
Error 2 358 179
Total 8 31251

Figure 3. Temperature contour (ºC) at the workpiece when machining H-13 at inclination angle of 5°, feed rate of 0.25 mm/rev
and cutting speed of 200 m/min

Figure 4 shows the temperature contours at the cutting tool when machining H-13 with inclination
angle of 5°, feed rate of 0.25 mm/rev and cutting speed of 200 m/min. Maximum temperature is found
around the tool tip along with three heat zones as depicted in Figure 4. The first one and the most
pronounced is along the tool cutting edge on the rake face mainly due to high frictional work and
plastic deformation. The second one is along the rake face due to frictional work when sliding across
the machined surface. The last one is at the center of the rake face due to continuous sliding of the
chip at a particular chip flow angle. The temperature then decrease rapidly up to the tool free edge.
The stresses on tool in the cutting direction when machining H-13 with inclination angle of 5°,
feed rate of 0.25 mm/rev and cutting speed of 200 m/min are shown in Figure 5. High compressive
stresses can be seen at the tool-chip interface. However maximum compressive stress is not found at
the tool tip. This occurs due to successive deletion of elements in front of the tool tip. Hence it carries
no load during the entire simulation. The compressive stress field clearly indicates the direction of
chip flow and gradually changes to tensile along the free surfaces of the tool.

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Figure 4. Temperature contour (ºC) at the cutting tool when machining H-13 at inclination angle of 5°, feed rate of 0.25 mm/rev
and cutting speed of 200 m/min

Figure 5. Direct stresses in the cutting direction when machining H-13 at inclination angle of 5°, feed rate of 0.25 mm/rev and
cutting speed of 200 m/min

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Figure 6. Mises stresses along the workpiece when machining H-13 at inclination angle of 5°, feed rate of 0.25 mm/rev and cutting
speed of 200 m/min

Figure 6 shows mises stress contours along the workpiece obtained from the FE simulations.
Mises stresses are highest at the primary shear zone with the shear zone thickness of around 0.024 mm
as shown in the Figure. This value is in close agreement with the work reported in (Shaw, 2013). In
contrast, stresses are found to be lowest at the sheared edge of the chip due to high tool-chip interface
temperatures. Mises stress at the machined surface are around 0.1 to 0.2 GPA and are providing a
rough estimate of residual stresses upon tool unloading.

5 CONCLUSION

• The proposed FE model can be used quite satisfactorily to predict cutting forces, stresses, chip
morphology and temperature to a reasonable degree of accuracy.
• Inclination angle effect in oblique turning can be simulated using the developed 3D FEM model.
• Feed rate has the largest effect on the cutting forces, whereas cutting temperatures are very much
dependent on the cutting speeds.
• The stress and temperature field predicted by the FE model are in accordance with the experimental
findings and theoretical knowledge.
• Chip flow can easily be predicted by observing the direct stress contour at the rake face of the tool.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The project is financially supported by King Saud University, Vice Deanship of Research Chairs.

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Usama Umar obtained his BE and MS degrees in Mechanical Engineering from NED University of Engineering
and Technology, Karachi, Pakistan, in 1998 and 2002, respectively. He completed his PhD in Manufacturing and
Automation from Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, China, in 2007. He worked as Quality Assurance officer in
Philips/Whirlpool from Oct. 1998 to April 2002. He started his teaching career in Nov. 2002 as Instructor in National
University of Science in Technology (NUST), Pakistan. After obtaining his PhD, he rejoined NUST as Assistant
Professor in July 2007. He has been working as Assistant Professor in Advanced Manufacturing Institute at King Saud
University Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, since Sep. 2012. His research interests include High Speed Machining, Modeling
and Simulation of Manufacturing Operations, Laser Beam Machining and Optimization Methods in Manufacturing.

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