CAD-based simulations and design of experiments for determining thrust force in drilling operations

Drilling thrust force calculations require a large amount of experimental work, which can be greatly reduced, since an extensively validated CAD-based approach, using the DRILL3D software application, has become available. DRILL3D calculates the thrust force of both the cutting areas of the tool (main edges and chisel edge) simultaneously, which means that every simulation can substitute two separate lab experiments. Nevertheless, as the number of parameters involved is increasing, the amount of the necessary simulations becomes substantial. This is the reason that led to the combined use of the DRILL3D and the design of experiments methodology, which reduces the amount of the necessary digital experiments to an impressive degree. Themain factors affecting the current analysis are the tool diameter, the web to diameter ratio, the feed rate and the cutting speed used. Using an L16 Taguchi table, a function of the developed thrust force can be calculated using the response surface methodology. This statistical modeling tool employs the regression analysis to establish the relationship between various process parameters and response. © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.