Simulation of Grain Refinement Induced by High-Speed Machining of OFHC Copper Using Cellular Automata Method

During high-speed machining (HSM), the microstructure of materials evolves with significant plastic deformation process under high strain rate and high temperature, which affects chip formation and material fracture mechanisms, as well as surface integrity. The development of models and simulation methods for grain refinement in machining process is of great importance. There are few models which are developed to predict the evolution of the grain refinement of HSM in mesoscale with sufficient accuracy. In this work, a cellular automata (CA) method with discontinuous (dDRX) and continuous (cDRX) dynamic recrystallization (DRX) mechanisms is applied to simulate the grain refinement and to predict the microstructure morphology during machining oxygen-free high-conductivity (OFHC) copper. The process of grain evolution is simulated with the initial conditions of strain, strain rate, and temperature obtained by finite element (FE) simulation. The evolution of dislocation density, grain deformation, grain refinement, and growth are also simulated. Moreover, cutting tests under high cutting speeds (from 750 m/min to 3000 m/min) are carried out and the microstructure of chips is observed by electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD). The results show a grain refinement during HSM, which could be due to the occurrence of dDRX and cDRX. High temperature will promote grain recovery and growth, while high strain rate will significantly cause a high density of dislocations and grain refinement. Therefore, HSM contributes to the fine equiaxed grain structure in deformed chips and the grain morphology after HSM can be simulated successfully by the CA model developed in this work.