J. Mater. Sci. Technol., 2011, 27(12), 1178-1184.

Broaching Performance of Superalloy GH4169 Based on FEM

Xiangwei Kong , Bin Li, Zhibo Jin and Wenran Geng
School of Mechanical Engineering & Automation, Northeastern University, Shenyang 110004, China
[Manuscript received June 7 2011, in revised form October 19, 2011]

The nickel-based superalloy GH4169 is an important material for high temperature applications in the aerospace industry. However, due to its poor machinability, GH4169 is hard to be cut and generates saw-tooth chips during high speed machining, which could signicantly aect the dynamic cutting force, cutting temperature uctuation, tool life, and the surface integrity of the parts. In this paper, the saw-tooth chip formation mechanism of superalloy GH4169 was investigated by the elasto-viscoplastic nite element method (FEM). Using the nite element software of ABAQUS/Explicit, the deformation of the part during high speed machining was simulated. The eective plastic strain, the temperature eld, the stress distribution, and the cutting force were analyzed to determine the inuence of the cutting parameters on the saw-tooth chip formation. The study on broaching performance has great eect on selecting suitable machining parameters and improving tool life. KEY WORDS: Machining; Superalloy; Saw-tooth chip; Finite element method (FEM)

1. Introduction The nickel-based superalloys are widely used in aerospace and steam engine industries because of their excellent high temperature properties[1] . GH4169, having similar compositions as Inconel 718, is a Nb precipitation strengthened nickel-based superalloy. It has not only excellent mechanical properties, such as tensile strength, creep resistance and low-cycle fatigue strength up to 650 C, but also good formability and weldability[2] . It has been used for manufacturing key high temperature parts of aircraft turbines. High speed machining (HSM) or high speed cutting (HSC), is an ecient processing method with considerably higher cutting speed and lower step feed rate than the traditional cutting technologies[3] . Compared with the conventional cutting methods, HSM could markedly reduce the vibration of the mill, decrease the cutting force, improve the cutting properties of the materials, and enhance the productivity. The shape of the chips formed during HSM varies with the properties of the materials and cutting speed[4] .
Corresponding author. Prof.; Tel.: +86 24 83687614; E-mail address: xwkong@me.neu.edu.cn (X.W. Kong).

For the materials of low hardness, such as Al alloys and low carbon steels, strip shaped chips could be formed in a wide range of cutting speeds. While, for the materials of high hardness, such as alloyed steels and Ti alloys, the saw-tooth chips could be generated in a wide cutting speed range and nally the chips would be scattered as single units at higher speed[5] . The yield strength of GH4169 alloy is the highest among the Ni-based superalloys. This inevitably leads to the formation of saw-tooth chips during HSM. The periodical vibration due to the formation of saw-tooth chips during HSM would cause uctuation of the cutting force and temperature, further aect the wearing conditions of the tools, and deteriorate the processing quality. For the saw-tooth chips of the superalloys, the shape of the tooth also changed with the cutting speed. When using relatively large cutting thickness in the low speed range, large and even deformation of the chip occurred in each tooth and the chip was assigned to the shearing chip. At higher cutting speed, smaller deformation occurred in the tooth and the strain mainly concentrated at the connecting roots. This kind of chip was called the adiabatic shearing chip. Two dierent theories were introduced for under-

X.W. Kong et al.: J. Mater. Sci. Technol., 2010, 26(12), 11781184

1179

Fig. 1 Orthogonal geometric model of the cutting system: (a) geometric model, (b) movement model Table 1 Tensile and yield strength of GH4169 under dierent temperatures Temp./ C b /MPa 0.2 /MPa 20 1372 1176 350 1294 1156 450 1196 1088 550 1215 1117 600 1215 1078 650 1166 1000 700 1039 951 750 862 764

standing the formation mechanism of the saw-tooth chips, i.e., catastrophic thermo-plastic or adiabatic shear theory and periodic brittle fracture theory[610] . However, in the simulation of saw-tooth chip formation, an appropriate plastic deformation criterion, such as the eective plastic strain, or the maximum shear stress, was employed to determine whether the unit was yielded or fracture. Once its deformation reached the criterion, the unit could be deleted from the mesh and it triggered the local shear slip to form the saw-tooth chip. Ti alloys were intensively studied to discover the formation mechanism of the sawtooth chip during HSM and Johnson-Cook materials model and fracture criterion were generally applied in the investigations[1121] . The primary nite element method (FEM) software, such as DEFORM, ABAQUS, and ANSYS, was adapted to simulate the cutting process[1923] . However, very limited information has been published on the saw-tooth chip formation during HSM of superalloys[16,17] . In this paper, the ABAQUS FEM software was employed to demonstrate the formation of the sawtooth chip during the HSM of GH4169. The JohnsonCook materials model and fracture criterion were selected in the simulation to analyze the stress, the strain, and the temperature eld of the part in the process. The formation mechanism of the chip was discussed and the eects of cutting parameters on the tooth shape were inspected in the study. The simulation results were further compared with the practical process to conrm the reliability of the investigation. 2. Finite Element Model of Metal Cutting 2.1 Orthogonal geometric model of the cutting system Because the broaching has good symmetry feature, 2D orthogonal model was used in place of 3D model in the simulation. The geometric model of the cutting process is shown in Fig. 1(a). The tool was assumed to be made of an ideal rigid material and the workpiece was an elastic-plastic material. During cutting,

the workpiece was xed and the tool moved relatively, as shown in Fig. 1(b). The cutting process was initiated at the contact of the tool with the workpiece and the saw-tooth chips formed accordingly. 2.2 Constitutive relation of the material GH4169 has the density of 8.24 g/cm3 , and it has the highest strength in superalloys. Its melting temperature ranges from 1260 to 1320 C. The high tensile stress, high creep stress and excellent corrosion resistance can be obtained after using isostatic pressing and standard heat treatment. In addition, the temperature can signicantly aect the material mechanical property parameters of GH4169. The tensile and yield strength of GH4169 under dierent temperatures is shown in Table 1. During the HSM process, the workpiece usually experienced elastic-plastic deformation under the severe strain and strain rate at high temperatures. It was of critical importance for the process simulation to take into consideration all factors aecting the ow stress of the material. The deformation occurred in the principal shearing area as HSM was a typical kind of high-speed deformation, which could induce thermoplastic shear instability. Therefore, the JohnsonCook constitutive model could be used to describe the ow stress of the material, = (A + Bn ) 1 + c ln 0

T Tr Tm Tr

(1) where A is the initial yield stress, B is the hardening modulus, n is the work hardening index, c is a coecient depending on the strain rate, m is the softening index, Tm is the melting point of the material, Tr is the room temperature, and 0 is the referred strain rate. 2.3 Contact friction between the tool and the chip Based on the dierent friction types, the interface

1180

X.W. Kong et al.: J. Mater. Sci. Technol., 2010, 26(12), 11781184

Fig. 2 Simulation of the saw-tooth chip formation during HSM (V =120 m/min, =5 deg., ap =3 mm): (a) t=0.6105 s, (b) t=1.3105 s, (c) t=2.0105 s, (d) t=2.6105 s

Fig. 3 Saw-tooth chips formed at dierent rake angles: (a) =0 deg., (b) =5 deg., (c) =10 deg., (d) =15 deg.

X.W. Kong et al.: J. Mater. Sci. Technol., 2010, 26(12), 11781184

1181

Table 2 HSM processing parameters in the numerical simulation Cutting speed, v /(m/min) 250 Tool rake angle, /deg. 0, 5, 10, 15 Cutting depth, ap /mm 0.3

between the tool and the chip could be divided into two dierent zones, i.e., the stick zone and the slip zone. In the stick zone, which was close to the tool tip, the chip pressed the working surface of the tool and the cutting temperature increased rapidly. The heat dissipation in this zone was slow and the chip was plastically deformed. The root of the chip tightly contacted the tool surface. When the cutting force exceeded the maximum shear stress of the workpiece, the material underneath the chip was torn and the friction in this area was the internal friction of the surface layer. Whereas, in the area away from the tip, due to the faster heat dissipation, either the cutting temperature or the cutting stress was much lower than that at the tip. The cold-working hardening of the material occurred after the deformation. Correspondingly, the friction in this area was the slip friction between the tool and the chip. The type of the friction that the element node was assigned to was determined by comparing the friction shear stress f with the maximum shear stress s . If f >s , the node was in the stick zone. Otherwise, it was in the slip zone[24] . f = s , f s (stick) f = n , f < s (slip) (2)

where f is the friction shear stress, s is the maximum shear stress of the material, n is the normal stress at the node, and is the friction coecient. 2.4 Criterion of material fracture In the plastic deformation, vacancies formed by dislocation accumulation and second phase particles or other imperfections would congregate to create cracks[25] . The Johnson-Cook dynamic failure model in ABAQUS-Explicit is suitable for the deformation under the high strain rate. In the model, the eective plastic strain of the integration point is calculated and the fracture occurs when the fracture parameter (D) exceeds 1. The fracture parameter is dened as D=
pl

The cutting speed of 250 m/min was selected because the saw-tooth chips formed obviously and consistently at this speed. Figure 2 shows the formation of the saw-tooth chip according to the time sequence. Because of the limitation of nite elements softwares, some lines occurred on the tip of sawtooth. After contact, the working surface of the tool pressed the workpiece. Large deformation and high temperature were generated at the tip of the tool, which built a thermal softened zone at the root of the chip. The formation of the softened zone reduced the valid load-bearing area and induced the plastic instability. In the meantime, the dierent owability of the material within the chip resulted in a tension stress on the outer surface, which further enhanced the instability of the metal and the concentration of the plastic slips. All factors initiated from the formation of the saw-tooth chips. With the formation of the sawteeth, the shear bands in the main deformation zone were signicantly distorted and the meshing grids were seriously deformed. The sawteeth emerged continuously along with the proceeding of the tool and tilted forward slightly. The shape of the teeth was regular and changed periodically. The adiabatic shear bands could be identied between the adjacent sawteeth, and they tilted at similar angles. For the chip formation of poor machinability metals, such as Ti alloys and superalloys, it was generally regarded that the adiabatic shear band was caused by the thermoplastic instability of the material[22] . During the HSM of the superalloy, the large plastic deformation of the alloy promoted the stress on the shearing slip surface of the chip to locally reach the strength limit of the material. The upper surface of the chip would be cracked and the root was still connected, i.e., the side contacting the tool was smooth while the other was indented. 4. Simulation Results and Discussion 4.1 Eect of the rake angle on the chip formation The eect of the rake angle on the chip formation was studied at the cutting speed of 250 m/min and cutting width of 0.03 mm. Figure 3 shows the simulation results. A is the adiabatic shear band. With increasing rake angle, the adiabatic shear bands in the chip become wider and the strain gradient within the band is getting smaller. It can be discovered from the simulation that increasing the rake angle can moderate the distortion of both the main deformation zones and the interfacial zone between the tool and the workpiece. With increasing rake angle, the area of single sawtooth will be decreased and the adiabatic shear band will be indistinguishable. When the

pl f

(3)

where pl is the increment of the eective strain, pl and f is the failure strain. 3. Simulation of the Saw-tooth Chip Formation The HSM processing parameters for superalloy GH4169 in the simulation were listed in Table 2. The tool relief angle was 3 deg. and the cutting width (aw ) was 4 mm.

1182

X.W. Kong et al.: J. Mater. Sci. Technol., 2010, 26(12), 11781184

Fig. 4 Eective stress distribution: (a) =0 deg., (b) =10 deg.

Fig. 6 Variation trend of cutting temperature

Fig. 5 Temperature eld distribution ( =0 deg.)

rake angle is 15 deg., the sawtooth almost disappears. 4.2 Eective stress distribution in the workpiece Figure 4 shows the eective stress distribution in the workpiece with =0 deg. and =10 deg. It distinctly demonstrates that the maximum eective stress locates in the shearing zone B in front of the tool. Higher stress presents in the stick zone than in other zones. Due to the thermoplastic instability of the material, the stress in slip zone is substantially lower. 4.3 Temperature distribution in the workpiece The contour map of the temperature eld in the workpiece is shown in Fig. 5. Dierent from the stress eld, the higher temperatures appear in the slip zone where severe plastic deformation occurs and the deformation energy is converted into a large amount of heat. Also, higher temperatures are observed at the bottom of the chip where the cutting edge contacts the metal. It is caused by the friction between the chip and the tool, which transfers to massive heat. Variation trend of cutting temperature along with cutting speed is shown in Fig. 6, where cutting speed (v ) is

Fig. 7 Chip micrograph[26]

50, 100 and 250 mm/s, respectively, and other parameters are the same as those shown in Table 2. Then the cutting temperature increases signicantly with increasing cutting speed. The existence of the adiabatic shear bands was further conrmed by the temperature map. In the adiabatic shear band, lower temperatures presented near the free surface, where higher strain rates also located. Therefore, such regions had a lower failure strain and were prone to brittle fracture. With the proceeding of the tool, small cracks initiated in the regions would develop to a gross cracked region. Meanwhile, the high temperature and high pressure at the interface between the chip and the front cutting edge created the adhesion eect which slightly bent the adiabatic shear band. The actual metallurgical micrograph of the chip shown in Fig. 7 approves

X.W. Kong et al.: J. Mater. Sci. Technol., 2010, 26(12), 11781184

1183

Fig. 8 Cutting force curve ( =0 deg.): (a) saw-tooth chip, (b) strip chip

the formation of gross cracked region and the bending of the adiabatic shear band toward the proceeding direction of the tool. The sharp sawteeth and the morphology obtained in the simulation are identical to those in the practical HSM. 4.4 Analysis of the cutting force The chip shape was saw-tooth with 250 mm/s cutting speed, and the variation of cutting force curve is shown in Fig. 8(a). While with same other parameters, the cutting speed was 100 mm/s, the chip shape was strip, and the variation of cutting force curve is shown in Fig. 8(b). Compared with the formation of the strip chip, the uctuation of the cutting force during the formation of saw-tooth chip is more significant. This dierence is caused not only by the deletion of the elements, but also by the thermoplastic instability of the deformation regions. When the concentrated slip deformation starts in the rst deformed region, thermoplastic instability occurs in the region and the load-bearing capability is deteriorated seriously. Therefore, the cutting force decreases accordingly. With the moving of the tool, the cutting edge presses a new batch of elements and the cutting force rises gradually. The uctuation of the cutting force during the saw-tooth chip formation is more drastic than that during the strip chip formation, and the variation appears periodically. 5. Conclusion The formation of the saw-tooth chip during HSM was simulated by an orthogonal nite element model using the commercial FEM software ABAQUS. The eect of the rake angle on the chip formation was also analyzed. With increasing rake angle, the area of single saw-tooth would be decreased and the adiabatic shear band would be indistinguishable. The key parameters, such as the eective plastic strain,

the temperature distribution in the workpiece, the eective stress, and the cutting force, were also obtained. Higher stress presented in the stick zone than in other zones and the stress in slip zone was substantially lower. Dierent from the stress eld, the higher temperatures appeared in the slip zone and the bottom of the chip. Also, the cutting temperature increased signicantly with increasing cutting speed. The uctuation of the cutting force during the saw-tooth chip formation was more drastic than that during the strip chip formation, and the variation appeared periodically. What s more, the development of the saw-tooth chip was investigated in terms of the internal stress, temperature eld and the cutting force. Results indicated that both the size of the saw-tooth and the adiabatic shear band changed reversely with the rake angle. The morphology of the chip obtained in the simulation was veried by the metallurgical micrograph of the actual sample, which conrmed the accuracy of the investigation.

Acknowledgements This work was supported by the Seed Cultivation Fund for National Project, Research Innovation Fund for Young Teachers under Grant No. 90403006. REFERENCES [1 ] G.L. Chen: High Temperature Alloy, Metallurgical Industry Press, Beijing, 1988. (in Chinese) [2 ] G.X. Qi, J.J. Wan, X.F. Chen and T.Z. Ji: Forg. Stamp. Technol., 2009, 34(1), 161. (in Chinese) [3 ] H.L. Wei, X.G. Yang and H.C. Yu: J. Mater. Eng., 2005, (4), 42. (in Chinese) [4 ] H.B. Yuan: Computer Aided Design and Manufacturing Tutorial, National Defence Industrial Press, Beijing, 2007. (in Chinese) [5 ] W.M. Zhu: Finite Element Simulation of Chip Formation in High Speed Cutting of Ti6Al4V Alloy, Master Thesis, Nanjing University of Aeronautics & Astro-

1184

X.W. Kong et al.: J. Mater. Sci. Technol., 2010, 26(12), 11781184

nautics, 2007. (in Chinese) [6 ] R. Komanduri and R. Brown: J. Eng. Ind.-Trans. ASME, 1981, 103, 33. [7 ] H.K. Tonsho and C. Arendt: Annals CIRP, 2000, 49, 547. [8 ] J.L. Chen: Modular Mach. Tool Automatic Manuf. Tech., 2007, (1), 25. (in Chinese) [9 ] M.C. Shaw and A. Vyas: Annals ClRP, 1998, 47(1), 77. [10] D.J. Benson: Comput. Meth. Appl. Mech. Eng., 1997, 140, 59286. [11] A. Gentel and H.W. Homeiste: Annals CIRP, 2001, 50(1), 49. [12] J. Barry and G. Byrne: Annals CIRP, 2002, 51(1), 65. [13] J. Barry, G. Byrne and D. Lennon: Int. J. Mach. Tools Manuf., 2001, 41, 1055. [14] A.E. Bayoumi and J.Q. Xie: Mater. Sci. Eng. A, 1995, 190, 173. [15] D.G. Thakur, B. Ramamoorthy and L. Vijayaraghavan: Mater. Des., 2009, 30, 1718.

[16] E. Uhlmann and R. Zettier: Annals CIRP, 2007, 56(1), 61. [17] J.C. Aurich and H. Bil: Annals CIRP 2006, 55(1), 47. [18] J.F. Luo: Modern Manuf. Eng., 2007, (5), 43. (in Chinese) [19] S.L. Soo, D.K. Aspinwall and R.C. Dewes: J. Mater. Process. Technol., 2004, 150, 116. [20] J.M. Zuo, Y.Y. Hu, M.L. Wang, S.M. Fei and X.Y. Gu: Mach. Tool Hydraulics, 2009, 37(11), 7. (in Chinese) [21] Y.J. Cai, C.Z. Duan, Y.Y. Li and M.J. Wang: J. Mech. Strength, 2009, 31(4), 693. (in Chinese) [22] D. Liu, H.H. Xu, X.K. Luo and W.Y. Chen: J. Plasticity Eng., 2009, 16(2), 203. (in Chinese) [23] Y. Yang, Q. Fang, Y.L. Ke and H.Y. Dong: J. Zhejiang Univ. (Eng. Sci.), 2008, 42(6), 1010. (in Chinese) [24] Y.Z. Zhang: Metal Cutting Theory, Aviation Industry Press, Beijing, 1988. (in Chinese) [25] J. Zhao, H. Meng, S.Y. Wang, X.J. Jia and Z.L. Li: Tool Eng. (Mag. Cutting Measuring Eng.), 2005, 39(1), 29. (in Chinese) [26] C.Z. Duan, M.J. Wang, G.H. Li and Y.J. Cai: Explo. Shock Waves, 2007, 27(1), 91. (in Chinese)