Simulation study on milling process of high-volume fraction aluminum-based silicon carbide composite

Aiming at the machining difficulty of high-volume fraction SiCp/Al composites, the cutting mechanism and damage behavior of SiCp/Al composites with volume fraction of 65% during the milling process using PCD tools were studied in this paper. The complex deformation phenomena among SiC particles, Al matrix, and particle–matrix in the tool-particle contact area during cutting were analyzed. A two-dimensional finite element model of a cut SiC/Al composite was built, cohesive zone model (CZM) was adopted, and relevant experiments were conducted to validate its accuracy and the effectiveness of the model. The SiCp/Al composite containing 65% silicon carbide particles (SiCp) was cut using polycrystalline diamond tools. Then, the effects of processing parameters (tool rake angle \({\gamma }_{0}\) ${\gamma }_0$ , corner radius \(r\) $r$ , milling depth \({a}_{p}\) $a_p$ , milling speed \(v\) $v$ ) and the tool-particle interaction on material properties were analyzed using a single-factor variable method. Both simulation and experiments revealed the failure modes of SiC particles and the Al matrix as well as the correlations with the cutting force, cutting temperature, cutting stress, and surface morphology. The results theoretically underlie the appropriate selection of tool geometrical parameters and the improved processability of SiCp/Al PCD tools.