Study on ultrasonic-assisted drilling of Ti6Al4V using 3-flute drill in the finite element simulation

Continuous chip is one of the major problems during drilling Ti6A14V, and chip breaking is dependent on many factors such as drilling parameters, tool geometries and type of drill bits used. This paper attempts to analyze the effect of various drilling parameters such as feed rate, spindle speed on performance characteristics such as chip morphology, thrust force, temperature, and tool wear in conventional drilling and ultrasonic-assisted drilling of Ti6A14V using twist drill bit and 3-flute drill bit in order to optimize the chip breakability of Ti6A14V. The twist and 3-flute drill bit are utilized to establish the finite element models to simulate the drilling process with Lagrangian approach in DEFORM-3D software. The results of the simulations not only reveal obvious varying regular pattern of thrust force, temperature, tool wear depth, chip thickness and damage with the increasing of feed rates, spindle speeds, which confirm the capability and advantage of finite element model of the drilling process, but also provide a more profound knowledge about the drilling mechanism including the effect of 3-flute drill bit in ultrasonic-assisted drilling on chip breakability and tool wear.