Analysis and Gap Monitoring for Improving Micro Electro Discharge Machining (EDM) Performance

这项拨款提供资金，用于开发微型电火花加工（EDM）过程的实验数据，定性和定量建模，以提高其在电子，汽车，医疗和航空航天工业中的应用潜力。开发的数据和模型将提供基本信息，用于选择适当的参数值，如电流，电压，电容，工作和刀具材料，饲料和辩证介质，以获得最佳性能的材料去除率，表面完整性，和刀具磨损率在实际的工业设置。这项研究将在内布拉斯加大学林肯分校提供的最先进的微细电火花加工设备上进行。利用光滑粒子流体动力学（SPH）技术，对放电和介质流体在差距中的流动（温度和粘度的变化）进行了综合传热模拟，研究结果将有助于更好地理解微细电火花加工工艺参数的选择，从而优化微细电火花加工的生产率和性能。建模工作也将导致在电极间间隙发生的物理过程及其对过程性能的影响的增强的知识。这反过来也将推动将开发的技术和工具应用于其他类似的微加工工艺，如微电化学加工（ECM）和微超声加工（USM）。在此项目期间开发的硬件和软件将在内布拉斯加大学林肯分校的本科生和研究生课程中实施，并将张贴在网站上，供所有感兴趣的专业人士轻松访问。

This grant provides funding for the development of experimental data, and qualitative and quantitative modeling of the emerging technology of micro Electrical Discharge Machining (EDM) process for enhancing its application potential in electronics, automotive, medical and aircraft and aerospace industries. The developed data and models will provide basic information for selecting appropriate values of parameters such as current, voltage, capacitance, work and tool materials, feed and dialectic medium for obtaining optimal performance in material removal rates, surface integrity, and tool wear rates in actual industrial settings. The research will be performed on a state-of-the art Micro-EDM available at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. The modeling effort involves integration heat transfer due the electric discharge and dielectric fluid (with its temperature and viscosity variation) flow at the gap using a technique called Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH).If successful, the results of this research will lead to a better understanding of the selection pf parameters for optimal productivity and performance of micro EDM process for many industrial applications. The modeling effort will also lead to an enhanced knowledge of the physical processes occurring at the inter electrode gap and their influence on the process performance. This, in turn, will also provide impetus to apply developed techniques and tools to other similar micro machining process such as micro Electrochemical Machining (ECM) and Micro Ultrasonic Machining (USM). The hardware and software developed during this project will be implemented in undergraduate and graduate courses at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and will also be posted on the web for easy access by all interested professionals.