FE-model for Titanium alloy (Ti-6Al-4V) cutting based on the identification of limiting shear stress at tool-chip interface

Modeling of metal cutting has proved to be particularly complex, especially for tool-chip interface. The present work is mainly aimed to investigate the limiting shear stress at this interface in the case of Titanium alloy (Ti-6Al-4V) dry cutting based on a FE-model. It is first shown that the surface limiting shear stress was linked to the contact pressure and the coefficient of friction (CoF). A relationship between CoF and the limiting shear stress was given, and the effect of the temperature on the limiting shear stress was also considered. After that, an orthogonal cutting model was developed with an improved friction model through the user subroutine VFRIC in Abaqus/Explicit software. The numerical results obtained were compared with experimental data gathered from literature and a good overall agreement was found. Finally, the effects of cutting speed, CoF and tool-rake angle on chip morphologies were analyzed.