Temporal and spatial crater wear prediction of WC/Co tools during dry turning of Ti6Al4V alloy

A new approach is developed to predict the crater wear variation on straight grade tungsten carbide tools during titanium machining. The effect of crater wear geometry has been considered on the variation of local state variables such as normal stress (sigma(n)), chip sliding velocity (v(s)), and cutting temperature (T) over the contact length at varying cutting times. Experimentally determined crater profiles at progressive wear stages were geometrically replicated on the cutting tool models and used for FEM analysis. In order to account for the variation of the state variables and wear rates with respect to the tool-chip contact length, the dimensionless fractional contact length parameter is introduced in the Usui characteristic wear equation. The thermo-mechanical state variables evaluated at different fractional contact lengths and cutting time were used to obtain the wear coefficients. The crater wear profile and wear depth are predicted and the same is experimentally validated over the contact length.