The influence of tool flank wear on residual stresses induced by milling aluminum alloy

The machining processes could induce residual stresses that enhance or impair greatly the performance of the machined component. Machining residual stresses correlate very closely with the cutting parameters and the tool geometries. In this paper, the effect of the tool flank wear on residual stresses profiles in milling of aluminum alloy 7050-T7451 was investigated. In the experiments, the residual stresses on the surface of the workpiece and in-depth were measured by using X-ray diffraction technique in combination with electro-polishing technique. In order to correlate the residual stresses with the thermal and mechanical phenomena developed during milling, the orthogonal components of the cutting forces were measured using a Kistler 9257A type three-component piezoelectric dynamometer. The temperature field of the machined workpiece surface was obtained with the combination of infrared thermal imaging system and finite element method. The results show that the tool flank wear has a significant effect on residual stresses profiles, especially superficial residual stress. As the tool flank wear length increases, the residual stress on the machined surface shifts obviously to tensile range, the residual compressive stress beneath the machined surface increases and the thickness of the residual stresses layer also increases. The magnitude and distributions of the residual stresses are closely correlated with cutting forces and temperature field. The three orthogonal components of the peak cutting forces increase and the highest temperature of the machined workpiece surface also increases significantly with an increase in the flank wear. The results reveal that the thermal load plays a significant role in the formation of the superficial residual stress, while the dominative factor that affects thickness of residual stresses layer is the mechanical load in high-speed milling aluminum alloy using worn tool.