Study on the effect of three dimensional wire vibration on WEDM based on a novel thermophysical model

Wire electric discharge machining (WEDM) is one of the most important non-traditional manufacturing methods and widely utilized in aerospace and tooling industry. However, the lack of the accurate numerical description of the WEDM process impedes a better understanding of the WEDM process and its machining mechanism. Since the vibration of the wire significantly affects the discharge location and the temperature distribution of the workpiece, the thermophysical model of the WEDM is much more complex than that of the EDM. In this paper, based on the classical thermal model of the EDM, a novel finite element method (FEM) model of WEDM considering the three dimensional wire vibration was proposed to simulate the machining process and verified by a series of WEDM experiments. Eventually, the effects of the wire vibration on the material removal rate and recast layer thickness were investigated quantitatively by analyzing the simulation results of this new thermophysical model and corresponding experimental results.