Abstract

Water vapor jet assisted metal cutting is a pollution-free green cutting technique. This paper has developed a three-dimensional finite element model of water vapor jet assisted cutting in order to understand the influence of its cooling and lubricating effect on cutting process. The cooling effect of water vapor jet is modeled with a convective heat transfer coefficient. A window with the temperature and the heat transfer coefficient of water vapor jet, which can move at the same speed as the tool, has been defined on the tool face so as to continuously simulate cooling process of the cutting zone under water vapor jet condition. Friction contact between tool and chip is modeled by a constant shear model. The shear friction factor with different values has been set to study the influence of lubricating effect of water vapor jet. Simulation results show that compared with its cooling effect, the lubricating effect of water vapor jet is more effective to reduce cutting force and tool temperature. A further improvement in the lubricating effect of water vapor jet also results in an obvious reduction in cutting force and tool temperature. The findings obtained in this study may provide helpful information for developing water vapor jet assisted cutting process.