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Estimation of Effect of Process Parameters on Temperature, Thermal and

Residual Stresses in EDMed AISI D2 Steel Components

Conference Paper · December 2010

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 2nd International Conference on Production and Industrial Engineering 657
CPIE-2010
Estimation of effect of process parameters on temperature, thermal and residual
stresses in EDMed AISI D2 steel components
M K Pradhan
Department of Mechanical and Industrial Production Engineering, Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology,
Bhopal-462051, Madhya Pradesh. India
(mohanrkl@gmail.com, mohankpradhan@manit.ac.in )

Abstract - In this research the effect of input variables
namely: discharge current, pulse duration on thermal and
residual stresses has been investigated. A finite element
modeling for the EDM process is presented to predict the
responses of a single-pulse discharge and results concerning
the temperature distribution, the thermal and residual
stresses of AISI D2 steel machined by EDM have been
depicted. The effects of the process variables on temperature
distribution, thermal stress distribution and residual stresses
have been reported. The model has been validated using
experimental data for and residual stresses using X-ray
diffraction method.
Keywords - Electrical discharge machining, Thermal
stress, Residual stress.
I. INTRODUCTION
Electrical discharge machining is a most primitive
non-conventional machining process, where material is
removed by a succession of electrical discharges occurring
between an electrode and a work piece. EDM is used
widely in machining conductive hard metals and alloys in
aerospace, automotive and die industries. It is regarded as
the “last resort” and most conventional non conventional
machining process. EDM comprises the complex
interaction of many physical phenomena. The electric
spark among the anode and the cathode produce huge heat
over a tiny area of the work piece. A fraction of the
produced heat is conducted through the cathode, a fraction
is conducted through the anode, and the rest is dissipating
by the dielectric. The duration of the spark is of the order
of microseconds and during this time a plasma channel is
formed between the tool and the work-piece. Thus the
modeling of EDM process is indispensable to understand
this process which should be able to predict the
temperature generated in the workpiece surface, thermal
and the residual stresses induced in the part as a result of
the non-uniform heating and cooling from the discharge.
Real EDM requires numerous successive pulses to achieve
the required final surface. This model, however, has been
developed to first predict the results of a single pulse.
After validating the predictions for a single pulse using
results from single-pulse experiments the model will be
extended to predict the effects of multiple pulses. The
high-density thermal energy discharge produces during
machining causes the local temperature in the work piece
gets close to the vaporization temperature of the work
piece, leads to the thermal erosion and also produces
recast layer with micro- cracks on machined surface.
Besides, due to this non-uniform heating and hasty
cooling of material during this EDM process generates a
multi-layered Heat Affected Zone (HAZ) in the sub
surface of the work piece and thus produces thermal
stress. If these stresses overpass the yield stress of the
material, they will remain as residual stress in the work
piece during subsequent cooling, which play a key role in
fatigue crack growth, crack closure, and fracture. Usually,
residual stresses are self-equilibrating stress exists within
a component when no external tractions are applied to it.
The state of the residual stress typically comes up as a
cumulative effect of the processes it has undergone, and
the material properties. The residual stresses are
particularly detrimental when they are tensile in nature, as
it instigates the crack and become critical if subjected to
fatigue load. Prediction and measurement of residual
stress in engineering components have been a pursuit of
researchers as residual stresses not only have an effect on
the initiation and onset of the propagation of surface crack
but also change the path/growth of the crack as it grows
below the surface.
Due to the complexity and highly stochastic nature of
the process that involve relations of thermal, mechanical,
chemical and electrical phenomena simultaneously, the
mechanism of this process is not completely understood
yet. Therefore, experimental trials are required to set up
the understanding and to get optimum conditions for an
EDM operation, resulting in increase in lead-time and cost
for the final product. Thus is customary to make efforts on
modeling the process to understand the behavior of
process and influence of the machining parameters on the
responses in order to trim down the experimental cost
associated. In this work, a finite element modeling of the
EDM process using ANSYS software is presented.
The formation of surface cracks has attributed to the
differentials of high contraction stresses exceeding the
materials ultimate tensile stress within the white layer [1].
Mamalis et al. [2] experimentally investigated on low-
carbon steel St37, medium carbon steel C45 and alloyed
steel 100Cr6 work piece and found that the peak stresses
are almost independent of the discharge energy and
approach the ultimate tensile strength of the material.
Rebelo et al. [3] in his investigation using XRD
methodology found that the residual stress of steel work
piece increases from the bulk material to a maximum and
decreases again approaching the surface. Also the peak
stresses are almost independent of the discharge energy
 2nd International Conference on Production and Industrial Engineering
and the greater the discharge energy, the greater the depth
at which the maximum value of residual stress occurs. A
qualitative relationship with the operating parameters was
presented by Ekmekci et al. [4] using DIN 1.2738 (AISI
P20) work piece material. For solving these problem
present trends of most of the research work are devoted to
numerical models based the finite element method. Yadav
et al. [5] applied FEM to investigate the thermal stress
generated by a single spark in EDM of Cr die steel. A
fraction (8%), of the produced heat is conducted through
the cathode a fraction (18%), is conducted through the
anode and the rest to the dielectric [6, 7 and 8].
Though there are several attempts have been made to
model the EDM process and the influence of machining
parameters on responses, a little research has been
reported relating to finite element (ANSYS) modeling of
residual stresses on AISI D2 tool steel yet. D2 steel was
selected due to its emergent range of applications in the
field of manufacturing tools in mould industries. In this
research, an attempt is made to investigate the effects of
most significant machining parameters (pulse current and
pulse duration) on the various changes and stress
developed in the beneath the spark by a single spark FEA
model for EDM. The major aim of developing this model
is to predict the nature of residual and thermal stresses
occurring during EDM. The FEA model is then used to
study the relation between these parameters and maximum
temperature attains, thermal stresses generated, at the end
of heating cycle and residual stress produced at the end of
cooling cycle. To establish the thermal and residual
stresses in the work piece during EDM, the temperature
distribution at the end of pulse duration in the work piece
has to be estimated first latter on after cooling the residual
stress is determined. In addition, residual stress which is
the main factor responsible for component failure, and the
location of tensile peak stress, at the end of cooling cycle
are investigated and verified experimentally.
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CPIE-2010
piece, the heat propagates symmetrically in all direction,
so taking advantage of its symmetry a small cylindrical
portion of the work piece around the spark is used as the
domain as shown in Fig. 1. A convective heat transfer
boundary conditions are applied on the surface that is
exposed to the dielectric. All of the equations in this study
are based on the cylindrical coordinate system, as shown
in Fig. 2.
ii. Boundary condition
Fig. 2 demonstrates a schematic diagram of the
thermal model with the applied boundary conditions
during heating cycle. During the spark on-time (heating
cycle) on the top surface Γ1, the energy transfer to the
work piece is represented by a Gaussian heat flux
distribution up to spark radius Rp. Beyond Rp, the heat
loss to the coolant is modeled using convective boundary
conditions. However, during cooling cycle, on the entire
top surface Γ1, the convection heat transfer takes place
due to the cooling effect caused by the dielectric fluid. No
heat transfer occurs across surfaces on Γ2 and Γ3, because
they are consider to be sufficiently far away for any heat
transfer to take place as the duration of spark is very
small. The boundary Γ4 is the axis of symmetry, hence the
heat flux has been taken as zero as there is no net heat
gain or loss across this boundary.

II. THEORY AND FORMULATION

If the total power which is used only by one single spark
with the radius (R) is known, then the heat flux q w (r) at
radius r is given by Figure 1 Schematic sketch of the physical model.
  r  
2

q w (r )  R 2 exp  4.5 R   (2(1)


4.55Pf U b I p
  )
p 
  p  

Where Pf is the percentage of heat input distributed to the
work piece, Ub the breakdown discharge voltage (different
from the applied voltage), Rp the spark radius and Ip is the
current. The Pf value has been previously determined by
Yadav et al. to be 0.08 for their theoretical work of
conventional EDM.
i. Thermal model
The domain is treated as a semi-infinite object in
considering the microcosmic characteristics of the single
discharge. The upper surface of the cylinder is the
machining surface and its centre is the focus of the ionized
channel. When a single spark is incident in to the work
 2nd International Conference on Production and Industrial Engineering
Figure 2 An axisymmetric model for the EDM process
simulation.
III. METHODOLOGY
For modeling and simulate the process a finite element
based model is used to estimate the temperature, thermal
stress and residual stresses distribution developed due to
electrical discharge machining. Commercial finite element
software ANSYS 12 is used for the same in which the
Gaussian heat input model is used to approximate the heat
from the plasma. The radial co ordinate depicted as x axis
and axial coordinate is y-axis. For this purpose, the
thermo-physical properties of the workpiece were
considered temperature dependent, and the convection
phenomenon was also considered external surface which
are exposed to the dielectric. A direct thermal-structural
analysis is performed in this investigation. Conduction
heat transfer within the workpiece is governed by the
diffusion equation. Results are obtained by using thermal-
structural coupled field elements and all of the boiled
material and a fraction of melted material are removed
from the domain at the end of pulse duration. Following
assumptions are made due to the random and complex
nature of EDM.
- The domain is considered axisymmetric.
- The material of the workpiece homogenous and
isotropic.
- The workpiece material is stress-free before EDM.
- The heat transfer to the workpiece is by conduction.
- Gaussian heat flux distribution on spark incident
surface of the workpiece material during pulse time
period.
- Inertia and body force effects are negligible during
stress development.
A tiny cylindrical portion of the workpiece beneath of
the spark is taken as the domain. Energy portion (8%)
transmits to the workpiece as heat input and pressure serve
the thermal and solid boundary conditions respectively.
The heat loss due to dielectric liquid on the non-spark
incident surface is modeled using convective boundary
conditions. Other boundaries are such distances away
from the heat source where there is no heat transfer across
them.
IV. EFFECT OF MACHINING PARAMETERS ON
TEMPERATURE PROFILE
The variation of temperature along the line of symmetry
with respect to the depth of the work piece has been
presented before material ejection in this section for
different pulse current and pulse duration. The peak
temperature and its distribution depends upon the amount
of spark energy supplied to work piece and hence the
pulse current and pulse duration has a significant impact
on the temperature profile which are explained in the
subsequent section.
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CPIE-2010
i. Effect of current:
The variation of temperature at the end of spark with
depth of the work piece has been plotted presented in
Fig.3. From these plots, it can be observed that with the
increase in Ip the peak temperature goes on increasing.
This is due to the fact that, with the increase in Ip the
magnitude of the heat energy transferred to the work piece
increases. From the figure, it is observed that temperature
shows inverse exponential relation with respect to the
axial distance.
Figure 3 The effect of Ip on the temperature variation with depth
ii. Effect of pulse duration:
The effect of pulse duration is presented along the depth
for Ip = 9A for Ton = 20 µs and 100 µs. It could be noted
that if Ton is higher, the spark radius R will also be larger
and the heat will be distributed to a larger area, (as the
plasma channel becomes wider with increase of Ton, the
heat flux distribution becomes less steep), which may not
produce the higher peak temperature, but will remove
more material. In this figure presented, it can be clearly
seen that the profile of Ton =100 µs, though more heat is
produced, but the peak temperature approaches 4000K.
However, the profile of Ton=20 µs with lower heat
supplied to a radius of 75 µm for a very short time, thus
produces a peak temperature of slightly higher than
4000K. This may be attributed to, though less amount of
heat is produced and the heat is concentrated to smaller
area, produce slightly higher peak temperature, than that
for larger Ton.
V. EFFECT OF MACHINING PARAMETERS ON
THERMAL STRESS
Gaussian heat source, believed to be closer to the real
life situation, is showing steep temperature gradients
within the spark radius zone. These steep gradients are
considered to be the main source of induced thermal
stresses in the work piece just after the material ejection.
However, it was not possible to validate the thermal stress
distributions in the work piece, as no results
(experimental/theoretical) are available for thermal
stresses developed during EDM. Fig.4. corresponds to the
nature of the thermal stress variation in radial direction
 2nd International Conference on Production and Industrial Engineering
along the centerline of work piece. The machining
conditions are stated in the plot. It is noted that the
thermal stresses obtained for all cases are compressive in
nature near the crater with the maximum values of the
stress are -348 MPa for Ip=1A and Ton=20µs, and the
value gradually becomes tensile and then asymptotically
become stress free with the increases in depth. The trends
of thermal stresses in other machining parameter setting
are similar. It could be clearly noticed that the profile is
shifting outwards (depth where maximum compressive
stress occur varies from 7.59 µm to 16.05 µm for 20 µs
and from 10.95 µm to 40.78 µm for 100 µs) indicating
that with the increase in Ip, as the spark energy increases,
produces higher gradient of heat flux that propagates to
more depth. Similar trend is also observed for Ton
(corresponding depth varies from 7.59 µm to 10.95 µm for
1 A and 16.04 µm to 40.78 µm for 9A) where with the
increase of pulse on time, the stresses propagate to more
depth. Fig.4. represents the thermal stress directly
following the heat flux in axial direction. Similar trend has
been observed for the thermal stress distributions in radial
direction.
Figure 4 Effect of Ip and Ton on thermal stress
The maximum compressive stresses are located on the
surface of the newly created crater and the magnitude is
comparatively low. Also, with the increase in Ip from 1A
to 9A the depth of maxi- mum thermal stress increases
from 30.33 to 48.11 µm and 43.79 to 122.92 µm for 20 µs
and 100 µs, respectively. Similarly, with the increase of
Ton from 20 µs to 100 µs the depth of maximum thermal
stress increases from 30.33 to 43.79 µm and 48.11 to
122.92 µm for 1A and 9A, respectively, confirming the
claim that with the increase in both Ip and Ton, the depth
of maximum thermal stress increases. The shear stress σrz
in the line of symmetry is found to be zero.
VI. EFFECT OF MACHINING PARAMETERS ON
RESIDUAL STRESS
Investigating the plot in Fig. 5 minutely, it is found that
radial components of the residual stresses in EDM are
predominantly tensile in nature. The magnitude starts to
increase from the top surface to its maximum value. It is
660
CPIE-2010
very interesting to observe that the magnitudes of the
residual stress for all four cases are found to be
approximately 600 Map. Thus, it can be concluded from
this observation that the intensity of the peak stresses is
found to be unaffected with respect to the magnitude of
the spark energy produced. This peak intensity of the
stress indicates the hot strength of the material machined.
However, it is observed that as the spark energy increases,
the depth at which the residual stress reaches maximum,
has been found to be increase. Subsequently, residual
stresses fall rapidly to fairly low values of compressive
residual stresses. Fig. 5 illustrates the residual thermal
stress in the axial direction. Around the crater, tensile
stresses are present, but they are not as large as those
beneath the adjacent surface. There stresses reach a
maximum value and then gradually decreases as the depth
increases and become compressive in nature. On further
increase of depth, this stress asymptotically diminishes to
a zero value.
Figure 5 Effect of Ip and Ton on residual stress
VII. CONCLUSION
In the present analysis, a two-dimensional axisymmetric
model was developed to predict the EDM characteristics
such as temperature, thermal and residual stresses. For the
development of the model well-known finite element
commercial software ANSYS 12.0 is used to simulate the
effects of a single spark for AISI D2 steel. The important
features of the process such as temperature-dependent
material properties, shape and size of heat source
(Gaussian heat distribution), percentage fraction of heat
contribution to the work piece, pulse on/off time, material
ejection fraction are taken into account in the development
of the model. The temperature profiles and material
transformations that occur in the work piece material due
to high temperature, deformations and transient operation
are analysed. In this analysis it is assumed that 50% of the
molten material is ejected from the material and rest is
recast on the work- piece. There is a sharp temperature
rise during the heating cycle and then it falls rapidly
during quenching. It is observed that the compressive
thermal stresses are developed beneath the crater and the
tensile stresses are occur away from the axis of symmetry.
FEM results show that the peak temperature sharply
 2nd International Conference on Production and Industrial Engineering
increases with pulse current whereas, with lower pulse on
time, it is slightly higher than that of higher pulse on time.
The work piece is severely affected by the thermal stresses
to a larger depth with increasing pulse energy. The nature
of residual stresses is predominantly tensile. It is very
interesting to observe that the magnitudes of the radial
component of the residual stresses acquired from FEM are
dominant than other components for all the machining
parameter combinations. The axial component of residual
stresses is however, minimum on the surface path and
increase as the path rotating towards the symmetry path.
The experimental results signify that the stress levels
reaches its maximum values close to the surface but
diminish very rapidly to comparatively low values of
compressive residual stresses in the sub-surface area and
the trend of these stresses with depth has an excellent
agreement with theoretical results. The magnitude of
tensile and compressive residual stresses as well as the
depth, at which they occur, increases with the pulse
energy however, the pattern of residual stress does not
change with regard to the machining parameters.
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CPIE-2010
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