Rapid simulation of metal cutting

Metal cutting is used in all metal machining processes (turning, milling and boring), widely used in the global manufacturing industry. However, reliably modelling the underlying physics of metal cutting has proved difficult, severely hampering efforts to design more efficient manufacturing processes. Thus at present, collected experience and/or time consuming and costly trial and error testing is still commonly used. The metal machining industry is estimated to be worth in excess of $830 billion per annum worldwide, so there is huge scope for significant cost savings. In this project metal cutting will be modelled using an inherently discontinuous modelling approach, using the recently developed discontinuity layout optimization (DLO) numerical modelling technique, which is approx. 1000x faster than current-generation finite element based techniques. In the project uncertainties in the metal cutting process will be modelled and the method extended to model oblique cutting scenarios, allowing processes such as turning and milling to be modelled. This will give manufacturers the ability to rapidly determine optimum operating conditions, leading to significant improvements in productivity.