Thermal Analysis of Wire Electrical Discharge Machining

New developments in the machining of materials have become a hard task for Electrical Wire Discharge Machining process used for machining an alternative material in future. Wire electrical discharge machining (WEDM) is widely used in machining of conductive materials when precision is considered as a prime importance. This is an electro-thermal non-traditional machining process, where electrical energy is used to create the electrical spark and material removal takes place due to thermal erosion of work piece due to spark discharge. This work proposes a three dimensional finite element model using ANSYS software and new approach to predict the temperature distribution at different pulse time as well as stress distribution in wire. A transient thermal analysis assuming a Gaussian distribution heat source with temperature-dependent material properties are being used to investigate the temperature distribution and stress distribution. Thermal stress developed after the end of the spark and residual stress developed after subsequent cooling is measured. The effect on significant machining parameter pulse-on-time and optimum diameter of wire tool for performance are going to be investigated.