Investigation of the effects of electrode orientation and fluid flow rate in near-dry EDM milling

This research investigates the effects of electrode lead and tilt angles and dielectric fluid flow rate on material removal rate, tool electrode wear ratio, and surface roughness in near-dry electrical discharge machining (EDM) milling process. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model is developed to predict the dielectric fluid flow rate and qualitatively compare with the experimentally measured EDM material removal rate. The optimum lead angle, which maximized material removal rate and minimized tool electrode wear ratio, was found. The decrease in the lead angle has a negative effect on the roughness of machined surface. The increase in tilt angle reduces the material removal rate and increases the tool electrode wear ratio. The change in tilt angle does not have a significant effect on the surface roughness and can be used to prevent gouging in finishing EDM milling. This study shows that the material removal rate is linearly proportional to the mass flow rate of air and kerosene mixture, the tool electrode wear ratio is inversely related to the mass flow rate of air and kerosene mixture, and the average surface roughness does not have a good correlation with the flow rate of the mixture.