Validation of a multi-scale Ti-6Al-4V drilling model by means of thermomechanical field measurements

Drilling operations lead to temperatures and forces that may locally reach significant magnitude and thus impair the surface and material integrity. Optimizing the cutting conditions could limit these degradations, which are more significant in the case of low thermal conductivity materials such as titanium alloys. Robust numerical modelling is a relevant alternative to such issues but must rely on strong in-process experimental measurements. Unfortunately, the confined nature of the cutting area during drilling prevent from any straight forward field-measurement. The proposed multi-scale strategy consists in validating the developed 3D FEM models both at micrometric and millimetric scales, using coupled full-field measurements. The limited access to the cutting area is overcome by means i) of oblique cutting tests at microscale and ii) tube drilling tests. Thermal fields are evaluated using an infrared camera while kinematic fields are determined by image correlation (DIC) using a high-speed camera. The experimental and numerical fields are then compared, and numerical results are extended over several revolutions by means of purely thermal 2D analytical model.