Power-based estimation of cutting forces during turning of aluminum biomass ash particulate composite

Aluminum-biomass ash particulate composite is a reinforced composite material of aluminum and biomass ash particles. The composite offers significant mechanical property advantage and low-cost advantage because of the use of waste as the reinforcement material, and as a result, it is gaining increased industrial attention because of the many advantages they offer over conventional aluminum matrix composites. These materials are mostly accessed based on their mechanical, microstructural, and chemical properties with very limited interest in their machinability relative to the base material. In this work, the specific cutting force coefficients and cutting forces of the composite were estimated during CNC turning operations and the effects of reinforcement on the machinability responses were studied. Power-based force estimation approach was adopted for this purpose for the first time. This approach is less expensive compared to the dynamometric approach since it relies on adapting existing equipment developed for other purposes. This was done by measuring the electric power of the direct-drive motors of the CNC machine during the turning processes, and the power measurements were analyzed to obtain the force coefficients. The cutting force components were observed to decrease as the percentage rice husk ash (RHA) reinforcement increased. This agrees with known results for the composite based on the dynamometric approach. The composite therefore promises to be more cost-effective than the base material in machinability terms.