Wear 302 (2013) 11451157

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Wear
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/wear

Analytical stochastic modeling and experimental investigation on

abrasive wear when turning difcult to cut materials
F. Halila a, C. Czarnota b, M. Nouari a,n
a
b

orique et Appliquee, LEMTA CNRS-UMR 7563, Ecole des Mines de Nancy, Mines dAlbi, GIP-InSIC, France
Laboratoire dEnergetique et de Mecanique The
Laboratoire dEtude des Microstructures et de Mecanique des Materiaux, LEM3 CNRS-UMR 7239, Universite de Lorraine, France

a r t i c l e i n f o

abstract

Article history:
Received 5 September 2012
Received in revised form
25 December 2012
Accepted 28 December 2012
Available online 11 January 2013

Tool wear and tool failure are critical problems in the industrial manufacturing eld since they affect
the quality of the machined workpiece (unexpected surface nish or dimensional tolerance) and raise
the production cost. Improving our knowledge of wear mechanisms and capabilities of wear prediction
are therefore of great importance in machining. The three main wear modes usually identied at the
tool/chip and the tool/workpiece interfaces are abrasion, adhesion and diffusion. Besides the fact that
understanding mechanisms that govern these wear mechanisms are still incomplete, the experimental
analysis is very difcult because friction interface features (such as temperature, pressure, particles
embedded in the contact y) are not easily measurable. The objective of this research work is to
develop a wear model in which abrasive particles are assumed embedded at the interface between tool
and chip. These particles are considered having a conical shape and are characterized by two main
parameters in the present approach: the corresponding size and apex angle. Wear particles may be seen
as non-metallic inclusions or wear debris generated during the machining process. A probability
density function has been adopted to describe the uctuation of the size and the apex angle of particles
in the contact area. The inuence of the adopted statistical distribution parameters is also presented.
The analytical model gives, as a nal result, the volume of the removed material per unit of time.
Finally, several wear tests were carried out considering an uncoated carbide tool WC-Co and Ti6Al4V
titanium alloy as machined material to validate the proposed model.
& 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords:
Cutting tools
Abrasive wear
Wear modeling
Stochastic modeling
Abrasive particles
Titanium alloy Ti6Al4V

1. Introduction
The surface quality of the machined part strongly depends on
tool wear. Generally, the main types of wear usually identied are
abrasion, adhesion and diffusion modes. These three modes of
wear operate in an interactive way and depend on several
parameters, which make the understanding of mechanisms governing them still incomplete. In addition, the study of these
mechanisms is difcult because friction interfaces (tool/chip and
tool/workpiece interfaces area) are not easily measurable during
machining operations.
To provide the beginning of an explanation to the mechanism
operating during abrasive wear, two fundamental questions raised:
What is causing this abrasion and how a carbide tool with a
very high hardness can be worn by abrasion?
Which parameters can have a strong inuence on the initiation
and the spread of abrasive wear?

Corresponding author. Tel.: 33 329422226; fax: 33 329421825.

E-mail address: mohammed.nouari@insic.fr (M. Nouari).

0043-1648/$ - see front matter & 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.wear.2012.12.055

To answer these questions, some authors have suggested

conclusions mainly based on experimental observations Suh [1]
supposed that asperities of the rough antagonistic surface are
responsible for the process of material removal and hence
abrasive wear. Generally, abrasion can be caused by two types
of abrasive particles. The rst type of particles can be considered
as free wear debris at the tool/workpiece contact. In their work,
Akasawa et al. [2] showed that this type of particles can be
explained by the diffusion wear mode that may lead to a
weakening of the cutting tool from which some particles are
detached and form wear debris. For instance, considering a
WCCo tool and a carbon steel workpiece [2], carbon atoms of
the manufactured steel migrate to the cutting tool and the cobalt
(binding part of the substrate WCCo) migrates to the workpiece.
As a consequence, a weakening of the WC grains takes place, thus
facilitating the propagation of cracks and the formation of wear
fragments.
The second type of abrasive particles is inclusions initially
present in the machined material and having a hardness higher or
at least equal to the hardness of the tungsten carbide cutting tool.
This shows that abrasion depends on the machined material.
Marinov [3] reminded that the work material may contain

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F. Halila et al. / Wear 302 (2013) 11451157

exogenous and endogenous non metallic inclusions. Exogenous as

soft endogenous inclusions (e.g. suldes and phosphides) do not
play an important role in abrasive wear. On the contrary, hard
endogenous inclusions such as silicate and carbides may have a
marked effect on the wear evolution. They can easily cut and
remove a part of material from the tool surface. Marinov [3]
conducted experiments to analyze the inuence of cutting conditions and abrasive particle characteristics on the abrasive wear
of a K20 tungsten carbide cutting tool. The author considered
several specimens prepared by powder metallurgy from a high
manganese steel and identied by distinct types of non-metallic
inclusions and different levels of concentration. It was shown that
the higher the ratio between the non-metallic inclusions hardness
and the cutting tools hardness, the more pronounced the abrasive
wear is. Marinov [3] also revealed that the abrasive wear
represents in general 25% of the total rate of wear which is in
contradiction with a previous study of Ho et al. [4] who found an
amount of only 10%. In the case of machining Inconel 718 with a
tungsten carbide tool, Focke et al. [5] also conrmed that nonmetallic inclusions are the cause of abrasive wear. Jia and sher
[6] focused on the inuence of chemical composition of tungsten
carbide tools and the nature of abrasive particles. Conducting
scratching tests and using several abrasives with different hardness, they conrmed that the abrasion resistance (inverse of the
removed volume) of the WCCo tools depends on their hardness
as well as the hardness of abrasive particles. Saito et al. [7]
considering different cemented carbide inserts by varying Co
content and WC grain size have shown that these two parameters
have a signicant inuence on the abrasive tool wear.
Cutting conditions also have a strong inuence on abrasive
wear [8]. The effect of temperature, for example, has been studied
by Usui et al. [9] who developed an empirical model to analyze
abrasive and adhesive wear. Kramer et al. [10] considered that
mechanisms controlling the total wear rate (including abrasive
wear) depend on cutting conditions. The authors conrmed that
mechanical wear processes, such as abrasion, are dominant at low
cutting temperature and for cutting speed. Thus, abrasive wear
depends, indirectly, on the chip sliding velocity and the tool/chip
contact length.
Abrasion manufacturing, in general, and the abrasive wear of
the cutting tool, in particular, can be studied by means of different
techniques. In the case of a conventional machining, cutting tool
wear is a combination of a complex several mechanisms. Separating the specic action of one of these wear modes is very
difcult to manage. Moreover conventional tribological tests
cannot reproduce severe machining conditions (high contact
pressure, high temperature, high strain ratey). Nevertheless,
some authors (e.g. Kagnaya et al. [11]) used tribological tests like
scratch tests, pin-on-disk tests, etc. to predict abrasion tool wear
in machining. By this way (knowing the restricted area of such an
analysis), one can capture inuences of the sliding distance, the
applied pressure or the nature of the used lubricant (in the case of
an assisted process) as well as material properties and characteristics (hardness, impurities concentration, thermomechanical
behavior,) on the abrasive wear. As a consequence, cutting tool
behavior may be analyzed and tool life may be predicted from
tribological bench tests.
One of the rst empirical equations based on conventional
tribological tests, governing wear process was given by Rabinowicz [12] and through the well known Archard equation [13]. In
these models, the removed volume of material increases linearly
with the normal applied load and the sliding distance and
decreases as the workpieces hardness is increased. Through
Abrasive wear tests, Khruschov et al. [14] showed that the
abrasion resistance varies linearly with the hardness. Tabor and
Powell [15] performed scratch tests with spherical indenters and

proposed a relationship where the abrasive wear is proportional

to the normal load and to the sliding distance; it was also found
inversely proportional to the hardness and the Youngs modulus
of the counter surface.
Thanks to these studies, answers can be proposed to the two
above questions. Abrasion wear is caused by abrasive particles
present at the tool-chip and tool-workpiece interfaces. Particles
can be either non-metallic hard inclusions present (initially) in
the machined material or debris generated by other wear modes
(adhesion or diffusion modes). Parameters such as hardness,
contact pressure, sliding velocity, contact length and temperature
have a great inuence on the abrasion wear process. However, the
temperature will not be considered in the development of the
proposed study which takes into account only the mechanical
abrasive wear mode.
In the present paper, a new analytical abrasive wear model is
proposed and applied to analyze physical wear phenomena
occurring during the machining of titanium alloy Ti6Al4V by
WCCo carbide tools. The paper is organized as follow:

 First of all, a Representative Volume Element (RVE) describing




the contact area is presented and general equations are

formulated. Then, it addressed the description of the proposed
model based on an analytical approach including a statistical
description of particles embedded in the contact area. Special
attention has been paid on the particles morphology and
contact pressure.
A sensitivity study is proposed in order to highlight the effect
of model parameters on the cumulative overall abrasive wear.
Finally, experimental cutting tests with WCCo inserts
machining refractory titanium alloys are presented and discussed. The tested materials are characterized by a ne sized
microstructure (grain size in the order of 1 mm) with a high
hardness level, in order to exhibit abrasion phenomenon

To validate the modeling, machining tests were performed

without lubrication (dry cutting) under different cutting conditions. Uncoated WCCo tools with different geometries were
chosen to study the wear behavior of the insert. Cutting forces,
pressure, friction and tool damage were deeply analyzed. A part of
the experimental study focuses on SEM and EDS post-mortem
analyses of the wear patterns exhibited by the inserts during
machining tests. Results were then compared qualitatively to the
theoretical modeling developed in this work. Experiments
revealed that during machining the a-b alloy, different tool wear
modes can be exhibited depending on the considered cutting
condition. It was clearly shown that diffusion was not fully
activated even for high levels of cutting temperatures, while
abrasion and excessive chipping were the most important failure
mechanisms for WCCo cutting tools. The paper discusses all
factors leading to such occurrences and studies the inuence of
cutting conditions and some microstructure parameters on the
tool effectiveness and failure modes.

2. Problem description
2.1. Representative volume element RVE
During machining, the chip ows on the tools face with a
sliding velocity denoted by Vc and exercising above an apparent
pressure denoted by P0. By adopting a homogenization procedure,
it was assigned to each material point of this contact chiptool
interface a representative volume element RVE shown in Fig. 1.
Within this RVE we denote by Nbr the number of potentially
abrasive particles per unit area present at the tool/workpiece

F. Halila et al. / Wear 302 (2013) 11451157

1147

Apparent contact pressure

CHIP
V

Po

CHIP
Inactive particles
Three-body abrasion

TOOL
Fc
Ff

WORKPIECE

Active abrasive
particles
TOOL

Two-body
abrasion

Fig. 1. Representative volume element (RVE) in the case of orthogonal cutting, containing Nbr abrasive particles (active and inactive). P0 is the apparent contact pressure,
P is the real contact pressure, Fc cutting force, Ff feed force, V cutting speed and Vc is the chip velocity.

Fragmented WC grain

Debonding of a
WC fragment

b
Wear debris

2m

Sulfide inclusion

Fig. 2. SEM images and optical micrographs of specimens showing different origins of abrasive particles: (a) WC fragments obtained from a pin-on disk test (WC6%Co/
AISI 1045) [11]. (b) Abrading particle left at the end of dry sliding wear test [19]. (c) Non-metallic Sulde inclusion observed in the machined steel K1050 with a CVD-TiN
coated HSS turning insert [20]. (d) Optical micrograph showing an embedded titanium carbide inclusion in a matrix of Inconel 718 [5].

interface. Depending on cutting conditions and material parameters, only a given number Nact of Nbr is actually active.
Potentially abrasive particles are closely related to the workpiece
material microstructure (impurities mean size and shape y). As
illustrated in Fig. 1, the inactive particles are in contact neither
with the tool nor with the chip. In the case of this study, adopting
a stationary and established contact, the number Nact of particles
per unit area is time independent and may be expressed as:
Nact N act Po ,V c ,ka ,kt ,kc ,ks

where P0 is the pressure applied on the remote boundary of the

RVE corresponding to the Tool/chip contact pressure (seen as the
apparent pressure) and Vc is the chip velocity. Quantities, ka, kt, kc
and ks represent microstructural and geometrical parameters of
abrasive particles, tool mechanical properties, chip mechanical
properties and statistical parameters.
Fig. 1 illustrates the RVE in the case of machining process.
It should be highlighted here that according to many authors
[1618], abrasive wear can be either two body or three body
abrasion. In two-body abrasion, abrasive particles are embedded
in the chip so that they will slide without rotation on the tool face
with Vc (velocity of the sliding chip). In three-body abrasion,

particles are free in the chip/tool contact zone. However, in the

present study, it is assumed that wear is mainly due to two-body
abrasion so that the number of abrasives involved in the processes of abrasion is the number Nact of the active particles.
2.2. Particles morphology
As previously underlined, abrasion wear mode has been found
to be caused either by wear debris involved at the tool/chip
contact zone or by non-metallic inclusions embedded in the
machined material. As an illustration, Fig. 2 shows different types
of hard particles that can be trapped into the tool/chip contact
and may cause abrasive wear (potentially abrasive particles).
Fig. 2(a) shows grains detached from WC grains in the cutting
tool [11]. Fig. 2(b) illustrates abrading particles (wear debris) left
at the end of a dry sliding wear test (cold work tool steel sliding
on a ferritic carbon steel) [19]. Fig. 2(c) and (d) depicts nonmetallic inclusions initially present in the workpiece [20,5].
As seen on Fig. 2, particles of a given material may have
various shapes and sizes. For example, Luo and Dornfeld [21], in a
work dealing with the modeling of the CMP (Chemical Mechanical
Polishing) process, have considered that abrasive particles may

1148

F. Halila et al. / Wear 302 (2013) 11451157

dc

2ac
2at

dt

Fig. 3. Schematic showing particle parameters and the relationship between the
deformation D dc dt in the neighborhood of the biggest particle.

have symmetric conical or spherical shape. Lorentzon et al. [22]

have used a numerical method to study the effect of a single
embedded hard carbide particle on tool wear. He considered a
conical shape of the hard particle. In the case of the present study,
each abrasive particle is considered having a conical shape
identied by a size R and an apex angle j (Fig. 3). Because
particles shape has a signicant impact on abrasive wear [21],
several authors assumed that geometrical parameters of these
particles (size, apex angley) follow a statistical distribution in
the contact area [23,24]. Adopting a same point of view, and in
order to take into account the great range in particle sizes and
shapes, R and j are assumed here to follow a statistical distribution. Details of calculation will be presented in a later section.

2.3. Real pressure/apparent pressure

The study of the contact mechanics [25] showed that the
surface contact between two solids is discontinuous and that the
real contact area A is, in some circumstances, a small fraction of the
apparent contact area A0. In 1966, Greenwood and Williamson [26]
have developed one of the rst models of elastic contact between a
rough surface and a smooth one. In their model, the authors
described the rough surface by the height distribution of the
contacting asperities supposed having a spherical shape at their
summits. It was found that the apparent pressure P0, corresponding to the apparent contact area A0, and the real pressure P,
corresponding to the real contact area A, applied on rough surface
asperities are related through the following equation:
A0
P

c
P0
A

In Eq. (2), c r1 is a constant that depends on the Youngs

modulus and the Poissons ratio of the two elastic surfaces, the
radius of the asperities and their distribution on the surface [26].
Although it appears that the contact between two bodies is
limited to microscopic asperities, it is commonly assumed that
the forces are distributed over the total apparent area. Such an
approximation is not so far from reality in machining where
contact pressure may reach high levels [27], inducing a crushing
of asperities and attening of contacting surfaces. As a consequence, the actual and apparent contact areas are similar such
that it can be considered that c 1 in Eq. (2).

3.1.1. Plastic deformation in the chip/abrasive and tool/abrasive

contact
The understanding of the deformation mode that occurs at the
particle/tool interface is important for the determination of overall
abrasive wear. If the deformation is elastic (Hertzian elastic
deformation), few or no abrasion occurs. In this paper, it is
assumed that the deformation occurring at the particle/tool and
particle/chip interfaces is purely plastic. This choice is justied by
two reasons; the rst is that the deformation at interfaces cannot
be elastic since the Hertz contact pressure is higher than the ow
stress [28] due to the high pressure at the chip/tool interface
generated during machining. The second reason is that the conical
shape induces an instantaneous elastoplastic (for moderate applied
pressure) or fully plastic (for high level of applied pressure)
deformation mode under the indentation test (there is no elastic
phase) [29]. This kind of deformation has been assumed by
investigators in many modelings of grinding, lapping or polishing
processes [21,29].
Fundamental assumptions made in the present work are the
following: The hardness of the chip is lower than the tools one and
the active abrasive particle is assumed embedded in the chip. The
contact between an abrasive particle and the tool is considered to
be a sliding indentation of a half-space by a hard indenter. The
contact between abrasive particles and the chip is considered to be
a quasi-static indentation of half space by a hard indenter. As a
consequence, when deducing applied forces from the tool and the
chip, a plastic zone with semi projected circle is considered for the
sliding indentation (tool) and a fully projected circle is considered
for the quasi-static indentation (chip). Adopting a tribological point
of view, the pressure applied by the abrasive particle on the tool
surface (resp. chip surface) is equal to the tool hardness Ht (resp.
chip hardness Hc). Denoting by F the force applied on the abrasive
particle, the radius ac of the projected circle contact between the
conical indenter and the chip surface is given by:
s
F
3
ac
pHc
Similarly, F and the radius at of the semi projected circle
contact between the conical indenter and the tool surface are
related through the equation:
s
2F
4
at
pHt
Because of the conical shape of particle, a relation exists
between the radius and the penetration depth:
dc
dt

tan j
ac
at

SideView

Front View

Vc

2at

dt
Frontal area
3. Modeling

Bottom View

3.1. Behavior of one active abrasive particle

The interaction between two neighboring abrasive particles is
disregarded here, such that the overall abrasive wear is obtained
by volume averaging over the total number Nbr of abrasive
particles. The behavior of one abrasive particle, assumed isolated
in a sliding contact, is presented in this section.

at
Groove
Fig. 4. Geometry of contact between the conical abrasive particle and the at
cutting tool surface.

F. Halila et al. / Wear 302 (2013) 11451157

1149

Table 1
Reference parameters.

sR
mm

Rmoy
mm

Rsup
mm

Rinf
mm

sj

jmoy

jsup

rad

0.15

45

80

10

and then:
s
F
dc tan j
pHc
s
2F
dt tan j
pHt

According to [21], the chip/tool contact pressure discontinuity

(due to the abrasive/tool contact and abrasive/chip contact) can
be neglected. Thus the force F applied on each particle (identied
by a size R and an apex angle j) may be approximated by
F 0.25p(R/tanj)2P, where P is the applied pressure (see Eq. (2)
with c 1). Eqs. (6) and (7) then become:
s
R P
dc
8
2 Hc
R
dt
2

s
2P
Ht

3.1.2. Single particle abrasive wear

As previously mentioned high pressures are observed in
machining and fully plastic deformation occurs. Consequently a
groove is formed as the particle is moving along the tool (see
Fig. 4).
The frontal surface of the cone, denoted by Af is depending on
the penetration depth dt, the apex angle j is given by:
2

Af dt =tan j

10

The removed volume by a single abrasive particle, with size A

and an apex angle j, per unit time is equal to:
v1p xAf V c

11

where Vc is the chip velocity and x is a parameter introduced to

describe the fraction of removed material converted into wear
debris [30]. Here it is assumed that all removed material leads to
micro-chip formation, so that x 1 and then:

jinf

dt
 Vc
tan j

v1p

R2 P
2 Ht

tan j

 Vc

3.2. Statistical description

As mentioned in Section 2.2, the various shape and size of
abrasive particles in the chip/tool contact is depicted by a statistic
distribution of R and angle j. Many types of probability density
function have been adopted in the literature to describe the
variation in sizes and shapes of inclusions (e.g. exponential [31],
log-normal [32] regarding inclusions in steels) that might be at
the origin of abrasive particles. Here, the two geometrical

Nbr
m2

nit


3.34

14.6

1.5

J105

51

"

 #
1
1 R0 Rmoy 2
p exp 
G R0
2
sR
sR 2p

14

where sR means the standard deviation of the distribution and

Rmoy is the mean.
For computational purpose, the probability density function
needs to be discretized. The range of particle sizes of interest is
[Rmin, Rsup] corresponding to the number of active particles Nact
where Rmin is the size of the smallest active particle. To nd Rmin,
it is supposed that under the applied pressure, largest particles
will be embedded in both chip and tool with a penetration depth
sup
in the tool denoted by dt (given by Eq. (9) with R Rsup) and a
sup
penetration depth in the chip denoted by dc (given by Eq. (8)
with RRsup). The free space left by the largest particles (in the
neighborhood), denoted by Y in Fig. 3, can involve an active
particle of a size Rmin at least equal to Y. That leads to:
sup

Y Rsup dt

sup

dc

15

Using Eqs. (8), (9) and (15), Rmin can express in terms of the
applied pressure as the following:

Rmin Rsup

13

P
GPa

12

Using Eq. (9) the volume removed by a single active particle

per unit time is nally expressed as:

Ht
GPa

parameters R and j are assumed to follow a statistical distribution governed by a bell-shaped Gaussian probability density
function for its common use and ease to understand. Since at
this stage of investigation, no precise analysis has been done on
the identication of particles shape and size for a particular
material, this choice of a Gaussian curve must be seen as a rst
approximation. A parametric study on the mean and the standard
deviation that characterize the Gaussian law is presented in a
later section in order to measure the effect of the adopted
statistical law. In the following, only the stochastic study for the
size R of the particle will be developed. Identical calculation was
done (not given here) for the second parameter j.
Value of the size parameter is in a range [Rinf, Rsup] where Rinf
(resp Rsup) stands for the smallest potentially abrasive particle
(resp largest), the probability to nd a particle outside the range
[Rinf, Rsup] being negligible. According to the Gaussian law, the
probability density function is given by:

v1p

Hc
GPa

!!
p s
2
1
P
1
p
Ht
2
Hc

16

Note that for the second parameter j all the range [jinf , jsup ]
was discretized, where jsup denotes the biggest angle and jinf the
smallest one. Adopted values are listed in Table 1.
The range of active particles [Rmin, Rsup] is divided into an odd
number nit 2k1 of subintervals of length L Rsup Rmin =nit.
The ith interval Int(i):
Inti R01i ,R02i 

R01i Rmin L  i1

R02i R01i L

is centered on the value R0i Rmin L  i1=2. The family F Ri is

dened as being the group of particles with size R belonging to
the interval Int(i), see Fig. 5.
According to the discretization scheme, the probability to nd
a particle with a size R0i belonging to the family F Ri of active

1150

F. Halila et al. / Wear 302 (2013) 11451157

Gaussian probability distribution

of particle size (1/m)

Range of active particles[Rmin,Rsup]

Int(i)
0.007

0.005

Family FiR

0.003

0.001

0.000

Particle size (m)

2.5E-08

Volume removal rate (m3/s.m2)

Volume removal rate (m3/s.m2)

Fig. 5. Gaussian probability distribution of particle size given by Eq. (14). Parameters are listed in Table 1.

Reference curve

2.0E-08
1.5E-08
1.0E-08
5.0E-09
0.0E+00
0

100

200

6.0E-08

Reference curve
P2=3 GPa
P1= 0.75 GPa

5.0E-08
4.0E-08
3.0E-08
2.0E-08
1.0E-08
0.0E+00
0

300

Fig. 6. Inuence of the chip velocity on the volume removal rate per unit time and
unit area. This curve stands as a reference curve in the course of the proposed
parametric study.

200

300

Fig. 7. Evolution of the volume removal rate per unit time and unit area versus the
chip velocity for two values of the contact pressure.

The total volume removed, per unit time and unit area, by
particles belonging to the same family F Ri :

particles is given by:

PrRi R0i PrR R01i ,R02i

100

Chip velocity (m/min)

Chip Velocity (m/min)

R02i

GR R0 dR0

R01i

 



R02i Rmoy
R01i Rmoy
1
p
p
erf
erf
2
sR 2
sR 2

17
p
2
where erf x 0 2= pexpy dy is the error function.
The same statistical description is adopted for the apex angle
j (not presented here).
Rx

3.3. Overall material removal

According to explanations given in Sections 2.1 and 3.2, the
number of active particles present in the tool/chip interface is
given by:
Z Rsup
Nact Nbr
GR RdR NbrPrR R ZRmin
18
Rmin

The part of active particles with size R0i, apex angle j0iand
belonging to the family F Ri is given by:
Ni NbrPrR0i , j0i

19

where PrR0i , j0i stands for the probability to nd a particle of a

size R0i and apex angle j0i. In the proposed description, it is
believed that any abrasive particle can have an apex angle
covered by the probability density function Gj(j0) given by Eq.
(14) in its R-form. In that sense, it appears that the two events
PrR R01i ,R02i and Prj j01i , j02i are independent events. The
probability to have a particle identied by a size R0i and an apex
angle j0i is therefore expressed as:
PrR0i , j0i PrR R01i ,R02i :Prj j01i , j02i

20

vit Ni :vi1p

21

vi1p

where
is the volume removed, per unit time, by a single
abrasive particle given by Eq. (13).
If no interaction is supposed between particles and between
the couple ((R0i,j0i),v1p(R0i,j0i)) for iA[1,nit], the total volume per
unit time and unit area, removed by all active particles trapped in
the contact tool/chip is given by:
0
1
2
nit
nit
X
X

 R0i2 HPt
R
j
i
@Nbr:Pr R01i ,R02i :Pr j , j
vtotal
vt
 VcA
01i
02i
tanj0i
i0
i0
22

4. Parametric analysis
A parametric study has been performed in this section using
Eq. (22) in which the total volume removed per unit time and unit
area is expressed as a function of several parameters. The
objective is to analyze the inuence of these parameters as well
as the effect of varying the statistical description (through the
mean and the standard deviation of the Gaussian law). Table 1
summarizes parameters of the tool material kt {Ht}, of the chip
material kc {Hc}, microstructural and geometric parameters of
abrasive ka {R,j}, parameters of the statistical distribution
ks {sR,sj,Rmoy,jmoy} and cutting conditions (P,Vc). Values listed
in Table 1 are considered as reference ones.
The mean value Rmoy and the standard deviation sR of the
Gaussian law are given according to the work of [23,33]. One
should note that the choice of a particular value is only

Nact = Nbr

1.2E+05
1.0E+05
8.0E+04
6.0E+04
4.0E+04
2.0E+04
0.0E+00
0.0

1.3 2.5 3.8 5.0 6.3

Contact Pressure(GPa)

7.5

Number of active abrasive particles

(1/m2)

Number of active abrasive particles

(1/m2)

F. Halila et al. / Wear 302 (2013) 11451157

1151

1.0E+05

Psat 3.75GPa

9.9E+04
2.0

3.0
4.0
5.0
Contact Pressure(GPa)

6.0

5.0E-10

Volume removal rate (m3/s.m2)

Volume removal rate (m3/s.m2)

Fig. 8. Evolution of the number of active particles Nact versus the contact pressure. Parameters used for calculations are listed in Table 1.

Reference curve
R=0.5 m
R=1.5 m
=0.05 Rad

4.0E-10
3.0E-10
2.0E-10
1.0E-10
0.0E+00
0

100
200
Chip velocity(m/min)

5.0E-10

Reference curve
Rmoy=3.5 m
Rmoy=7 m

4.0E-10
3.0E-10
2.0E-10
1.0E-10
0.0E+00
0

300

100
200
Chip velocity (m/min)

300

0.012

Volume removal rate (m3/s.m2)

Gaussian Probability Distribution of

particles size (1/m)

Fig. 9. (a) Inuence of the rst group of parameters ks1 on the volume removal rate per unit time and area. (b) Inuence of the second group of parameters ks2 on the
volume removal rate per unit time and area.

R=1 m
R=0.5 m

0.01
0.008
0.006

0.004 Rmin(R=1)=3.94m
0.002
0
0

Rmin(R=0.5)=3.04m

Volume removal rate (m3/s.m2)

4.0E-10

2.0E-10
1.0E-10
0.0E+00
50

1.0E-10

100

150

200

Reference curve
Nbr=10
Nbr=1000

1.0E-12
1.0E-14

50

100

150

200

250

300

Chip Velocity (m/min)

3.0E-10

1.0E-08

Particles size (m)

Reference curve
Ht1=2 x Ht
Ht2 = 0.5 x Ht
Hc1=2 x Hc
Hc2=0.5 x Hc

5.0E-10

1.0E-06

10

Fig. 10. Gaussian probability density for two values of the standard deviation.
Other parameters are listed in Table 1.

6.0E-10

1.0E-04

250

300

Chip velocity (m/min)

Fig. 11. Inuence of Ht and Hc on the volume removal rate per unit time and
unit area.

Fig. 12. Inuence of the total particle number Nbr on the volume removal rate per
unit time and unit area.

Adopted values of Hc and Ht correspond to the Ti6Al4V as the

workpiece material and the WCCo as the cutting tool.
It has to be noted that it is difcult to give the exact total
number of abrasives Nbr present in the contact (active and
inactive) because of the different origins of particles (wear
debris, non-metallic inclusions). Some authors consider that all
particles are provided from non-metallic inclusions, referring,
for example, to the work of Atkinson et al. [24] which also gives
an overview of all experimental techniques to nd the parameter Nbr When considering that all abrasive particles are from
wear debris, the work of Soda [34] can give us an approximation
of Nbr by the following equation:
1=4

Nbr 0:026P O2 U
1=4

meaningful for a specic material. The upper limit is given by

Rsup Rmoy 4sR and the lower limit is given by Rinf Rmoy 4sR .
A large range is adopted for the interval [jinf , jsup ].

where P2

23

is the pressure of oxygen and U is the sliding speed.

But it should be noted that Nbr given by Sodas equation is per

unit time.

1152

F. Halila et al. / Wear 302 (2013) 11451157

Cutting tool
(WC-Co)
Work piece
(Ti6Al4V)
f

Chip

V
f

Fc
Ff

Fig. 13. Schematic representation of the orthogonal cutting process. (a) 3D representation, (b) 2D representation. f is the feed (mm), w is the width of cut (mm), a is the
rake angle (1), F is the shear angle (1) and Lc is the contact length (mm).

Undeformed

+
Tool/chip contact

Deformed

Fig. 14. Microstructure of the Ti6Al4V material. (a) Before machining (in the workpiece) and (b) after machining (in the chip), close to the tool/chip contact (secondary
shear zone). In this zone a high deformation of b phase can be identied.

tendency may be valid for higher velocities and it is expected that

for lower values of Vc, the response would be quite different. In
the following, results shown in Fig. 6 are taken as a reference
curve for analyzing next parameters inuences.

Table 2
Chemical composition of Ti6Al4V (mass %).
Fe

Al

O2 N

Max 0.25

3.54.5

5.56.75

Max 0.8

Max 0.2

Max 0.3

Max 0.25

In the present work, the parameter Nbr was xed based on

Holappas work [35]. The author proposed a number of particles
NV 105 corresponding to the number of alumina inclusions
estimated in 1 cm3 of steel. This value, which is a volumetric
concentration, is adopted as a rst approximation to identify Nbr
by using the following equation:
Nbr Nv 2=3

24

Note that this number is just a magnitude; its inuence on the

volume removal rate is shown by the parametric study.
4.1. Effect of cutting conditions: chip velocity Vc and contact
pressure P
4.1.1. Effect of the chip velocity Vc
Fig. 6 shows the evolution of volume removal rate per unit
time and unit area vtotal for chip velocities ranging from 0 to
300 m/min and using reference values listed in Table 1.
It can be easily seen from Fig. 6 that vtotal given by Eq. (22)
increases linearly with the chip velocity without any stabilization
of the abrasive wear process. One should note that Fig. 6 represents the inuence of chip velocity (and at some extent, the
inuence of the cutting speed) on volume removal rate, but only
when solely abrasion is considered. At low chip velocity and high
pressure and for some refractory materials, adhesion can be the
main wear mechanism and built up edge may occur for some
refractory alloys. The built up edge will affect the wear mechanism, and also the contact pressure and temperature distributions
along the tool/chip contact length. As a consequence, this linear

4.1.2. Effect of the contact pressure P

The effect of the contact pressure is analyzed in Fig. 7. Two
values of the contact pressure were chosen: P10.75 GPa and
P23 GPa. As observed for the cutting speed inuence, vtotal
increases linearly with increasing the contact pressure. This
growth is due to the direct and indirect role played by the contact
pressure. The direct role can be seen through Eq. (13) where it can
be noticed that the single particle abrasive wear v1p depends
directly in a linear way on the contact pressure P
The indirect effect of the contact pressure occurs in the
number of active particles Nact according to Eqs. (16) and (18).
Indeed, when the contact pressure P tends towards a saturation
pressure denoted by Psat, the size of the smallest active particle
R Rsup R
Rmin will tend toward Rinf . Thus, accordingly Rmin
G RdR 1
leading to Nact Nbr. When P is such that P4 Psat, and since the
number of active particles cannot be greater than all potentially
activated particles, it is observed a plateau (Fig. 8). The saturation
pressure Psat is obtained from Eq. (16) considering Rmin Rinf and
can then be expressed as:
0
12
B 2Rsup Rinf C
q
C
Psat B
@
A
2
1
p
Rsup

Ht

25

Hc

4.2. Effect of the distribution parameter

The effect of the statistical distribution is studied using
Fig. 9(a) and (b) when vtotal versus the chip velocity for different
set of distribution parameters. The statistical parameter ks
was separated into two groups. First group contains three values

F. Halila et al. / Wear 302 (2013) 11451157

1153

Table 3
Mechanical and thermal properties of Ti6Al4V.
Tensile strength
(MPa)

Limit of elasticity
(MPa)

Elongation
(%)

Young modulus
(GPa)

Hardness
(HV)

Density
(g/cm3)

Specic heat
20100 1C (J/kg K)

Thermal conductivity at
20 1C (W/m K)

931

862

10

110

340

4.43

580

7.3

Table 4
Mechanical and thermal properties of chemical components of the cutting tool.
Tool material

Specications

Thermal expansion coefcient (10  6/K)

Density (g/cm3)

Melting point (1C)

Hardness (Hv)

Youngs modulus (MPa)

WC
Co

69.8%
9.5%

5.1
12.3

15.6
8.9

2900
1495

2150

700  103
100180  103

Table 5
Mechanical properties the tool substrate.
Tool substrate

WCCo

Hardness 25 1C (HV10)
Hot hardness 800 oC (kg/mm2)
Density (g/cm3)
Thermal conductivity (W/mK)
Thermal expansion (10  6/K)
Modulus of elasticity (GPa)
Traverse rupture (GPa)

1485
600
11.4
45
6.1
510
2.2

the standard deviation ks1 {sR1 0.5 mm, sR2 1.5 mm,
sj1 0.05 rad}. Second group contains two values of the mean
value size ks2 {Rmoy1 3.5 mm, Rmoy2 7 mm}. All other paraof

meters remain constant and are given in Table 1.

Fig. 9(a) shows the inuence of the rst group of parameter on
vtotal while Fig. 9(b) gives the inuence of the second group on
vtotal. When sR increases, the volume removal rate per unit time
and unit area decreases. Same conclusions can be obtained
regarding the inuence of sj. It is also observed that an increase
in Rmoy leads to an increase in vtotal.
Size of particles has a direct effect on the single particle
abrasive wear as indicated in Eq. (13). An increase in the size of
particles will lead to more quantity of removed material.
The standard deviation has a direct effect on the number of
particles involved in the abrasion wear process. Indeed the
variation of the standard deviation leads to a variation in the
range of active particles [Rmin, Rsup] and then more or less particles
will be activated as illustrated in Fig. 10.

Co

WC

Fig. 15. High magnication on the tool rake face microstructure showing the
shape and the size of WC grains and binder phase Co.

higher hardness, it will be more difcult for the abrasive to be

embedded in the chip, reducing thus the two-body abrasion.
4.4. Effect of the total number of particles Nbr
For this study, two values of Nbr are considered:
Nbr1 l1  Nbr and Nbr2 l2  Nbr with l1 0.1and l210.
The inuence of Nbr on the vtotal is shown in Fig. 12 with the
Y-axis given in logarithmic scale.
Increasing 10 times the number of particles induces an
increase of 100 times in the volume removal rate per unit time
and unit area and vice versa. The gure shows the major impact of
Nbr on vtotal.

5. Experimental verication
4.3. Effect of the hardness of the tool and the chip Ht,Hc
5.1. Experimental set up
This inuence of chip and tool hardnesses on the worn volume
is illustrated in Fig. 11. Values of the tool hardness considered, in
calculations are Ht1 2  Ht and Ht2 0.5  Ht. Same ratios were
chosen for the chip hardness Hc, such that Hc1 2  Hc and
Hc2 0.5  Hc.
It is well known that for low values of the tool hardness, the
removal material process can be facilitated and more quantities of
material will be removed. This effect of Ht shown in Fig. 11 is
otherwise clearly captured in Eq. (13).
Concerning the chip hardness Hc, an increase in its values leads
to a decrease in the volume removal rate per unit time and unit
area vtotal. This can be explained by the fact that according to
Eq. (16) Hc affects Rmin QUOTE and then, indirectly, inuences the
number of active particles Nact. As said in Section 3.2, abrasive
particles are embedded in the chip because Hc QUOTE is much
lower than the particles one. As a consequence, for a chip with a

Machining tests were carried out under dry and orthogonal

congurations, see Fig. 13, using the a-b titanium alloy Ti6Al4V as
the workpiece material and a cemented carbide WCCo as the
cutting tool.
Tests were performed on a heavy-duty lathe machine with a
11 kW motor drive, which generates a maximum torque of 1411 Nm.
The spindle rotational speed ranges from 18 to 1800 rpm. As shown
in Fig. 14(a), the titanium alloy Ti6Al4V presents before machining a
duplex microstructure a/a b with an average grain size of
10 mm(ranging from 5 mm to 20 mm). Inclusions of b grains can be
clearly seen inside the microstructure before machining in Fig. 14(a),
and after machining in Fig. 14(b). Vickers tests have been performed
on nine different specimens. The average micro-hardness is about
340 HV0.2. The high level hardness depends on several strengthening
mechanisms such as grain size, solid solution atoms, and precipitation

1154

F. Halila et al. / Wear 302 (2013) 11451157

hardening. It controls directly the level of obtained cutting forces, tool

wear, and cutting temperature and then the machinability of the
considered material, see the work of Clement et al. [36].

The micrograph of Fig. 14(b) clearly exhibits the microstructure evolution during the chip formation process with very high
deformation of b phase. A lamellar structure can easily be

Table 6
Data recorded from cutting tests. Friction coefcients, shear angles and chip velocities were calculated using Merchant Model [37] and contact pressure was calculated
using Moufki et al. model [38].
Cutting
speed
V(m/
min)

Feed
Rake
f(mm) angle
a(1)

Cutting force
Fc (N)
(start 1st
pass)

Cutting force
Fc (N)
(end 5th
pass)

Cutting
force Fc
(N) (ave.)

Feed force Ff
(N)
(start 1st
pass)

Feed force Ff
(N)
(end 5th
pass)

Feed
force
Ff(N)
(ave.)

Worn
Apparent
Contact
friction
length
pressure
Lw (mm) coefcient m P(MPa)

Shear
angle
F(1)

Chip
velocity
(m/min)

15
15
30
30
60
60
30
30
15

0.1
0.2
0.1
0.2
0.1
0.2
0.1
0.2
0.1

900
1500
970
1250
800
900
1000
1000
450

1100
1875
1200
1420
1000
1100
900
1100
600

1000
1688
1085
1335
900
1000
950
1050
525

400
520
450
580
300
580
560
700
60

480
600
550
650
600
710
600
1000
50

440
560
500
615
450
645
580
850
55

0.33
0.58
0.34
0.69
0.36
0.87
0.52
1.43
0.27

33.13
35.82
32.63
32.63
31.72
28.59
29.30
25.50
42.01

9.80
10.94
19.20
19.20
37.04
32.53
15.13
13.01
10.24

1800
1600
1400
1200
1000
800
600
400
200
0

0.44
0.33
0.46
0.46
0.50
0.65
1.05
1.38
0.73

2240
2168
2366
1456
1866
859
1114
418
1168

700
Cutting force Ff (N)

Cutting force Fc (N)

0
0
0
0
0
0
15
15
30

f=0.1 mm,=0
f=0.2 mm,=0

600
500
400
300
200

f=0.1 mm,=0
f=0.2 mm,=0

100
0

20

40

60

20

Cutting speed V (m/min)

40

60

Cutting speed V (m/min)

Fig. 16. Evolution of (a) cutting and (b) feed forces with cutting speed for three feeds f 0.1 mm, 0.2 mm.

2500
Contact pressure P (MPa)

Contact pressure P (MPa)

2500
2000
1500
1000
500

f=0.1 mm,=0
f=0.2 mm,=0

2000
1500
1000
V=15m/min,=0
V=30m/min,=0
V=60m/min,=0

500
0

20

40

Cutting speed V (m/min)

60

0.1

0.2

Feedf(mm)

Fig. 17. Evolution of contact pressure with (a) cutting speed for three feeds f 0.1 mm, 0.2 mm and (b) feed rate for three cutting speeds V 15 m/min, 30 m/min,
60 m/min.

Chipping

Worn contact area

Built-up-layer (BUL)

Tool rake face

Fig. 18. Worn tool with rake angle a 01 (test with V 60 m/min and f 0.2 mm). (a) Worn contact area (b) Chipping wear and build up layer formed on the tool rake face.

F. Halila et al. / Wear 302 (2013) 11451157

examined under a scanning electron microscope (SEM) equipped

with energy X-ray spectrometer (EDS).
5.2. Results
The data recorded from the experiment and the results of
calculation based on Merchant model [37] and Moufki et al.
model [38] are listed in Table 6. More precisely, merchant model
was used to calculate the shear angle F, the friction coefcient m
and the chip velocity Vc. Moufki et al. model was used to calculate
the contact pressure P.
5.3. Cutting forces and contact pressure
During the cutting process, the tool removes a part of the
workpiece by a process of intense plastic deformation at high
strain rate within the primary and secondary shear zones. Thus,
the cutting tool is subjected to a high temperature and great
pressure.
The value of the cutting force of each cutting test is an average
value of forces recorded when starting the rst machining pass
and at the end for the last machining pass (5th pass). It can be
observed from Fig. 16(a) that cutting force decreases when the
cutting speed increases. It is commonly stated in the literature
that increasing the cutting speed leads to a decrease in the cutting
force level. Muller et al. [39] have done a work on the same
material and under the same cutting conditions. They showed
that the measured cutting temperature increases from 550 1C
with a cutting speed of V 15 m/min to 700 1C with V60 m/min.
It means that the thermal softening of the material makes the
cutting forces lower and then pressure decreases too, see
Fig. 16(a). Indeed, when machining titanium alloys, the tool
chip interface is controlled by the contact temperature which can
attain large values and affects drastically the mechanical properties the machined material. Consequently the contact pressure
and cutting forces decrease. In the same time, the high temperature (especially with low thermal conductivity of titanium alloys)
0.9
0.8
Worn Length (mm)

observed in the machined material. On Fig. 14(b) white spots

correspond to undeformed b phase. The initial equiaxed microstructure in Fig. 14(a) gives to the material a good combination of
strength and ductility. It is well known that the lamellar structure
in titanium alloys possesses higher creep resistance, fracture
toughness and crack propagation resistance. This means that
machining process plays a very important role in the mechanical
properties of alloys by affecting their microstructure. The complex microstructure of titanium alloys provides during machining
a variety of microstructures ranging from the equiaxed a-b
microstructure to the b-transformed (martensitic or lamellar)
and poses many challenges in microstructural control during
thermo-mechanical processing to meet nal machined component properties. Also, the exhibited deformation process shows an
extreme thermomechanical loading (high pressure and high
temperature) applied to the workpiece by the cutting tool. The
examination of the deformed microstructure in a, b and a b
phases reveals ne sizes of b grains and two localized shear zones.
The rst one is called the primary shear zone and the second
one the secondary shear zone.
Tables 25 present a summary of the chemical composition
(mass%), mechanical and thermal properties of the alloy.
Uncoated cemented carbide inserts were employed for
machining Ti-6Al4V specimens. Each tool consisted of tungsten
carbide (WC) with cobalt as the binder phase. The surface
roughness Ra of the rake face is about 0.5 mm and the Rt about
5 mm. The chemical analysis on a polished surface inside the tool
gives a composition of 69.8 wt% of WC, 9.5 wt% of cobalt and
20.7 wt% of Ti/Ta/Nb, see Tables 4 and 5. Tool micrograph in
Fig. 15 shows that the Co binder is uniformly distributed and WC
grains have sizes varying from 1 to 5 mm.
Cutting conditions (cutting speed and feed) and tool geometry
(rake angle) were considered as the main factors to investigate
the correlation between tool wear, sliding chip velocity and
pressure. As shown in Table 6, experiments were carried out
keeping cutting speed, feed and rake angle at various levels. The
range of each factor was selected based on industrial requirements.
The cutting length allowed by the machine capacity (about 1.5 m)
provides a sufcient cutting time to reach the stationary regime
of the cutting process (1.6 s for a cutting speed of 60 m/min).
The cutting speed V has been varied between 15 and 60 m/min,
feeds f between 0.1 and 0.2 mm and rake angle between 01 and 301.
For all experiments, the width of cut w was kept constant to
4 mm to satisfy conditions of orthogonal machining. The other
variables such as machine condition, variability in set up, etc.,
have been maintained constant throughout the experimentation.
A three components Kistlers dynamometer were employed for
cutting force measurements. The forces reported are those for
the process in a stable state with almost steady pulses. The tool
wear length was collected using a toolmakers microscope
(1 mm resolution) at 30  magnication. The wear surfaces were

1155

0.7
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
V=30 m/min, f=0.1 mm

0.1
0
0

10

20

30

40

Rake angle ()

Fig. 20. Worn length Lw vs. rake angle.

Excessive chipping
Chipping wear

Fig. 19. Worn tool with rake angle a 151 (test with V 60 m/min and f 0.2 mm). (a) and (b) show excessive chipping wear process on the tool surface.

1156

F. Halila et al. / Wear 302 (2013) 11451157

Volume Removal Rate (m3/sm2))

1
Worn Length Lw (mm)

0.9
0.8
0.7
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2

f=0.1 mm, =0

0.1

f=0.2 mm, =0

0
0

20

40

60

1.00E-09

f=0.1 mm, =0

9.00E-10

f=0.2 mm, =0

8.00E-10
7.00E-10
6.00E-10
5.00E-10
4.00E-10
3.00E-10
2.00E-10
1.00E-10
0.00E+00
0

Cutting speed V (m/min)

20

40

60

80

Cutting speed V (m/min)

Fig. 21. (a) Worn length Lw vs. cutting speed, and (b) Theoretical worn volume vs. cutting speed and feed.

affects signicantly the wear behavior of cutting tools [40]. From

Fig. 16(b), it can be observed that the feed force increases with the
increase in the feed.
Fig. 17(a) and (b) represents the inuence of the cutting speed
V, feed f on the contact pressure.
5.4. Tool wear
For observations and qualitative analysis, a scanning electron
microscopy (SEM) coupled to Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDS) was performed on worn specimen of cutting tools.
For a quantitative analysis and measuring the worn contact
length, a Prolometer was used. Each specimen was analyzed
after obtaining stable cutting forces.
5.4.1. Effect of the rake Angle
Results on the examination of cutting tool with rake angle of 01
show that the tool failure is due to adhesion and abrasion wear.
The sample of evidence is presented in Fig. 18. In Fig. 18(a), the
rake surface exhibits two worn areas. The rst area is covered by
the Built Up Layer (BUL) of the workpiece material (Ti6Al4V).
From results of our previous work [41], this worn area can be
classied as the area with adhesive wear area. The examination
under SEMEDS shows that this area is covered with titanium
alloy layer with a thickness of 5 mm. On the second area, chipping
wear can be observed (about 17 mm in depth). This is due to the
detachment of BUL which is pulled away by the chip ow on the
tool rake face. Since the adhesive wear mechanism bonds BUL
strongly on this area, the detachment of BUL is also pinched out
the tool substrate.
When the rake angle increases from 01 (Fig. 18) to 151 (Fig. 19),
the cutting tool shows chipping wear and excessive chipping. The
chipping wear area is about (750  130  80) mm3 (length x width
x depth). Chipping on the tool rake face with a rake angle of 151 is
more excessive than the tool with 01. The SEM measurement
recorded that the depths of chipping along the cutting edge varies
from 100 to 220 mm. It can be concluded from these results that
the wear is wider and deeper when the rake angle increases. To
prove that, the worn length along the cutting edge, denoted by Lw,
was measured and presented vs. the rake angle in Fig. 20.
The evolution of the worn length shows an increasing function
from 01 to 151 and a plateau for larger values of the rake angle
(here from 151 to 301).
Results shown in Fig. 21(b) are given by our abrasive wear
model. The latter can give the evolution of the worn volume vs.
cutting speed for different feed rates. However, as in experiments,
the worn length cannot be given directly by the modeling.
Consequently, only a qualitative comparison has to be done
between our model and experiments to validate the proposed
approach.

As seen from Fig. 21, the comparison between the proposed

model and experiments (under the same conditions) shows the
same tendency in terms of increasing tool wear (abrasion wear)
with cutting speed. However, the comparison cannot be easily
extended to the inuence of the feed. Fig. 21(b), corresponding to
the proposed model, shows a higher level of the volume removal
rate for the lowest feed. This can be explained by Fig. 17(a) where
the contact pressure deduced from experiments decreases with f.
Since our model strongly depends on the contact pressure where
predicted wear volume increases as the pressure increases (see
Fig. 7), the results given in Fig. 21(b) are not so surprising.
On the counterpart, Fig. 21(a) reveals that an increase of the
feed f leads to a decrease in the experimental worn length. This
result must be read with caution because the worn length is a
result of many other wear modes (diffusion, adhesiony) that are
not accounted for in this work.

6. Conclusion
In this work, abrasion wear has been investigated. The main
contribution of the study concerns physical understanding of
wear phenomena that occur during machining the usual refractory titanium alloy Ti6Al4V. The latter is extensively used in the
aerospace industry for structural components. Tool wear and
inuence of different parameters such as tool geometry, cutting
speed, feed, pressure, etc. are some of the most important points
discussed in this work. The original point of this research paper
concerns the proposal of a new stochastic modeling in the eld of
machining metallic alloys.
The work was organized in three parts:
(1) The rst part was dedicated to the development of the
model based on the concept of a RVE including a statistical
description of potentially abrasive particles trapped in the
tool/chip contact area. In the present approach, the
volume removal rate during machining is obtained from
an analytical relationship (see Eq. 22). This variable is seen
as representative of abrasive wear. The most important
parameters affecting tool wear by abrasion were shown to
be the cutting conditions parameters (chip velocity Vc and
contact pressure P) as well as microstructure heterogeneities (described by the distribution in size and apex angle
of abrasive particles) and contacting bodies properties. It
appears that the abrasive size is of particular importance
since it is squared in the relation giving the volume
removal rate.
(2) The second part was focused on a parametric analysis of
the inuence of material and cutting condition parameters
as well as the effect of the statistical law on abrasive tool
wear. Cutting condition parameters (P, Vc), tool hardness

F. Halila et al. / Wear 302 (2013) 11451157

Ht and the total number Nbr of particles have a major

inuence on the volume removal rate. An increase of their
values leads to an increase of the volume removal rate.
The chip hardness Hc has an indirect inuence on the
volume removal rate. It appears that the softer the chip is,
the more the volume removal rate is. From the proposed
analysis, abrasive particles are responsible for the amount
of wear, rather than the chip. Lower chip hardness allows
larger embedding of particles within the chip, which limits
the particle abrasive capabilities. As a consequence, a less
number of particles are active in the process, and the
volume removal rate is reduced. Statistical parameters
have a similar indirect inuence since they drive the
number of active particles Nact and, then, more or less
particles will be engaged in the process of abrasive wear.
(3) Finally an experimental study was carried out to verify the
robustness of the proposed model. Machining tests were
performed under dry and orthogonal congurations using
the a-b titanium alloy (Ti6Al4V) as the workpiece material
and uncoated carbide WCCo as the cutting tool. The
qualitative comparison between experiments and modeling in terms of cutting speed effect on the worn length or
the volume removal rate, shows the same tendency with
the analytical model.

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