Title: EDM machinability and parametric optimisation of 2014Al/Al₂O₃ composite by RSM

Authors: Akhil Khajuria; Raman Bedi; Balbir Singh; Modassir Akhtar

Addresses: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Dr. BR Ambedkar National Institute of Technology, Jalandhar, Punjab, India ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, Dr. BR Ambedkar National Institute of Technology, Jalandhar, Punjab, India ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University, Katra, Jammu and Kashmir, India ' Materials Science and Technology Division, CSIR-National Metallurgical Laboratory, Jamshedpur, Jharkhand, India

Abstract: The present work investigates the machinability and influence of process parameters on the machining characteristics in EDM of AA2014/Al₂O₃ composite. The composite was fabricated through stir casting technique. Process parameters considered are current, voltage, pulse on time and wt.% reinforcement for the purpose of optimisation. Machining characteristics viz. MRR, TWR and SR are investigated. Experiments were designed by adopting rotatable centred composite design based on RSM. The machined surface is further analysed by SEM-EDS. Results revealed that MRR, TWR and SR increase with an increase in the current and pulse on time. However, less TWR and good surface finish are obtained at the lower setting of current, pulse on time and optimum setting of voltage and wt.% reinforcement. Performance measures recorded experimentally at optimum values of process parameters, i.e., 12 A current, 60 V voltage, 60 µm pulse on time and 5 wt.% Al₂O₃/AA2014 reinforcement are 0.1501 g/min MRR, 0.0032 g/min TWR and 9.367 µm SR.

Keywords: aluminium metal matrix composite; AMMC; material removal rate; MRR; tool wear rate; TWR; surface roughness; analysis of variance; response surface methodology; RSM.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMMM.2018.096380

International Journal of Machining and Machinability of Materials, 2018 Vol.20 No.6, pp.536 - 555

Received: 01 Sep 2017
Accepted: 24 Dec 2017
Published online: 27 Nov 2018 *

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