Research on ultrasonic vibration–assisted electrical discharge machining SiCp/Al composite

In this paper, ultrasonic vibration–assisted electrical discharge machining (UEDM) is used to process SiCp/Al composite materials in order to achieve a higher material removal rate (MRR) and lower surface roughness, width overcut, and relative tool wear rate (RTWR). On the basis of studying the erosion mechanism of EDM SiCp/Al composite material, the flow field simulation study was carried out using FLUENT software. The simulation results of the gap flow field show that the ultrasonic vibration of the tool electrode is conducive to the removal of chips, which makes the discharge more stable and improves the machining efficiency. Based on the single-factor experiment, the effects of peak current, reference voltage, pulse width, and pulse interval on MRR, surface roughness, width overcut, and RTWR of the workpiece are studied. Then, based on the orthogonal experiment, the gray relational analysis method was used to optimize the process parameters, and the order of the influence of the 4 process indicators on the comprehensive performance and the optimal processing parameter combination was obtained. The reliability of the process optimization was verified with experiments.