Application of Merchant theory in machining particulate metal matrix composites

Particulate metal matrix composites (PMMC's) are a category of engineering materials with growing applications in modern industry. Conventional machining processes are used to fabricate engineering PMMC's components. This article presents a preliminary experimental study based on Merchant theory for PMMC's (aluminium alloy reinforced with 20% of particulate silicon carbide-SiC). The experiments were carried out on PMMC's special workpieces using cemented carbides K20 cutting tools in radial turning. The objective of this study is to evaluate the chip compression ratio (R-c), shear angle (Phi), shear strain (epsilon), shear strain rate (d epsilon/dt), normal stress (sigma) and shear stress (tau), under prefixed cutting parameters (cutting velocity and feed rate). (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.