Thermal analysis of EDM discharge

Abstract

This work is aim to develop a thermo-physical model for die-sinking electric discharge machining (EDM) process using ANSYS software which uses finite element method (FEM). The thermo-physical model developed provides an inexpensive and time saving alternative to study the performance of machining before actual cutting operation. The analysis of the operation of EDM process will be carried out considering the twodimensional. The analysis is based on some factors and properties which are considered vital to carried out this experiment. Moreover a realistic assumption such as plasma diameter, and removal mechanism and discharge duration are considered. By using the developed model, thermal analysis studies had been be carried out to study the thermal distribution on the workpiece with respect to the thermophysical properties of the material selected for this work. Six different materials were selected for this work pure Copper Aluminum, Tantalum, Nickel, Stainless Steel AISI 316and Titanium have been selected for this experiment. Thus a comparison had been carried out to investigate the thermal distribution on each material. It was found that the metal with high conductivity shows the fastest distribution of temperature while, metal with low conductivity takes more time for the temperature to be distributed on the workpiece.