Power-Based Estimation of Cutting Forces During Turning of Aluminium Biomass Ash Particulate Composite

Abstract Aluminum-Biomass Ash Particulate Composite is a reinforced composite material of aluminum and biomass ash particles. The composite offers significant mechanical properties 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 Aluminium Matrix Composites. These materials are mostly accessed on the basis of their mechanical, microstructural and chemical properties with very limited interest on their machinability relative to the base material. 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. In this work, 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 process 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. Since the cutting force components decrease with increase in reinforcement, it can be deduced that increasing RHA in the Aluminium might reduce friction at the tool-chip interface and extend tool life, in other words, improving machinability. The composite therefore promises to be more cost effective than the base material in machinability terms.