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.