Titanium Alloy Thin-walled Curved Surface Liquid Metal-abrasive Flow Machining Simulation and Experimental Research

Abstract

Aiming at the uneven distribution of surface roughness of titanium alloy thin-walled curved workpieces after abrasive flow polishing, an abrasive flow machining method based on liquid metal is proposed. Based on the SST k-ω model, OKA erosion model, and fluid flow particle tracking model, COMSOL finite element software is used to conduct in-depth research on the dynamic characteristics of liquid metal-abrasive particles under different electric field arrangements. The simulation results show that the reasonable arrangement of the electric field can control the movement of liquid metal particles in the flow field and effectively improve the uniformity of the workpiece surface processing. Furthermore, a set of experimental parameters with better erosion are obtained through simulation. Based on the simulation results, a test platform is built and the liquid metal-abrasive flow machining experiments were performed. The experimental results show that the liquid metal-abrasive flow machining method can obviously improve the surface uniformity of the workpiece. After 14 hours of processing, the roughness distribution in different areas of the surface processed by abrasive flow without electric field is uneven. The roughness of the concave part of the workpiece is obviously greater than that of the convex part, and the surface roughness of each area reaches 66.1nm. The uniformity of surface roughness in each region of the workpiece after liquid metal-abrasive flow machining is significantly improved, and the surface roughness range in each region is reduced to 20.3 nm, which provides theoretical and experimental basis for the development and regulation of liquid metal-abrasive flow machining.