Analysis and simulation of the directional effect in vibration-assisted MICRO-WEDM

Abstract

The advantage of vibration-assisted WEDM had been demonstrated through many re- searches. When vibration was applied to the WEDM process, the machining efficiency and machined surface quality were both improved. However, the directional effect caused by the difference between the vibration direction and the machining direction has not been studied. This paper presents the numerical analysis and simulation for studying the directional effect in a vibration-assisted micro-WEDM. The pressure variation in the machining area which affects the flushing efficiency of the dielectric was analyzed using ANSYS CFD software. The vibra- tion direction was found to have significant effect on the flushing of the debris formed during the machining process. The simulation results also showed that the angular difference between the cutting direction and vibration direction should be kept lower than 45˚ to maintain efficient debris flushing.