Study of the Shear Strain and Shear Strain Rate Progression During Titanium Machining

Machining is among the most versatile material removal processes in the manufacturing industry. To better optimize the machining process, the knowledge of shear strains and shear strain rates within the primary shear zone (PSZ) during chip formation has been of great interest. The objective of this study is to study the strain and strain rate progression within the PSZ both in the chip flow direction and along the thickness direction during machining equal channel angular extrusion (ECAE) processed titanium (Ti). ECAE-processed ultraline-grained Ti has been machined at cutting speeds of 0.1 and 0.5 m/s, and the shear strain and the shear strain rate have been determined using high speed imaging and digital image correlation (DIC). It is found that the chip morphology is saw tooth at 0.1 m/s while continuous at 0.5 m/s. The cumulative shear strain and the incremental shear strain rate of the saw-tooth chip morphology can reach approximately 3.9 and 2.4 x 10(-3) s(-1), respectively, and those of the continuous chip morphology may be approximately 1.3 and 5.0 x 10(3) s(-1), respectively. There is a distinct peak shift in the shear strain rate distribution during saw-tooth chip formation while there is a stable peak position of the strain rate distribution during continuous chip formation. The PSZ thickness during saw-tooth chip formation is more localized and smaller than that during continuous chip formation (28 versus 35 mu m).