Modeling and simulation of the material removal process in electrolyte jet machining of mass transfer in convection and electric migration

Electrochemical jet machining (Jet-ECM) is a non-contact machining process which employed jetted column electrolyte as tool to impinge on the workpiece surface. Throughout the developments of this technique, the research on removal mechanism about mass transfer in Jet-ECM is of few interests. This paper presents a multi-physical approach for modeling the material removal process by coupling electrochemical reactions, fluid dynamics and mass transfer as a consequence of diffusion, convection and migration of ions in electrolyte and electrolyte-electrode interface. The electrolyte flow field is calculated for incompressible flow by Navier-Stokes equations. The distribution of ions are found to be a significant factor to current density distribution and geometry change. The consideration of mass transfer is closer to reality. (C) 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.