This award supports fundamental research in understanding the relationship of tool wear evolution and vibrational stability to cutting mechanics when machining nickel-based superalloys, to provide knowledge needed to plan new approaches that can extend tool life and make behavior more consistent. Application of this research will help reduce costs and improve quality for high-value energy and aerospace systems, including defense applications. As such, this project promotes the progress of science, advances national prosperity and welfare, and helps secure national defense. Additionally, this work includes a plan for broadening participation of underrepresented and minority groups in scientific research by recruitment efforts through the National GEM consortium and Clemson's Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) programs.
The objective of this research project is to decouple the variability in tool wear evolution models through a novel experimental procedure, and to relate wear and machining parameters to the plastic deformation layer (Machining Affected Zone, MAZ) depth in nickel-based superalloys. The derived models will be used to simulate stable, robust and minimum cost path plans. The approach to accomplishing this will be to model the process parameters' effect on wear and cutting forces, and the subsequent cumulative effect on the plastic deformation zone depth (i.e., MAZ) through a stochastic representation approach, whereby model parameters are represented as random-variable belief distributions. The knowledge generated will be applied to deriving robust tool paths for improving the process consistency and performance. If successful, the broader impacts of this work will include improved economy of machining for energy and aerospace manufacturers, and increased participation of underrepresented groups in scientific research.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
