Materials and Design 30 (2009) 160165

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Materials and Design

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/matdes

A study of plastic strain and plastic strain rate in machining

of steel AISI 1045 using FEM analysis
J.P. Davim *, C. Maranho
Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Aveiro, Campus Santiago, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 18 January 2008
Accepted 15 April 2008
Available online 22 April 2008
Keywords:
FEM analysis machining
Plastic strain
Plastic strain rate
AISI 1045
High speed machining (HSM)

a b s t r a c t
The present paper employs the nite element method to determine the plastic strain and plastic strain
rate when machining an AISI 1045 steel. A validation of the process using literature experimental values
was also conducted in order to verify if the obtained results with the commercial nite element software
were close to those found within the literary research. The comparison shows that nite element modulation can be used to determine either plastic strain or plastic strain rate if special attention is taken into
consideration when using the analytical models. The effect of high speed machining (HSM) in the plastic
strain and plastic strain rate when cutting steel AISI 1045 was observed.
From the simulations, it can be concluded that both the plastic strain and plastic strain rate can be predicted with good precision when machining with the FEM model.
2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
AISI 1045 steel is widely applied nowadays because of its
mechanical properties and is commonly used in mechanical constructions and also as part design. Its a material with good
machinability and has proven to be capable of providing engineers
a good and reliable solution when submitted to effort, corrosion,
etc. Due to its characteristics, its the steel with more applicability
among them all.
High speed machining (HSM) process is being used for manufacturing complex machine parts, mould and die, aerospace and
automotive components where maintaining structural integrity
of materials (while removing high volumes of material) is of extreme importance [13]. It presents several advantages besides
high removal rates such as reduction in dead times and lower cutting forces, leading to excellent dimensional accuracy and surface
quality as well [4]. Having this said, HSM processes are growing
industrial interest not only because they allow larger material removal rates but also because of the positive inuence on the nished workpiece properties. An interesting feature of HSM
processes is that specic cutting force for a great amount of materials decreases with the increase in cutting speeds and then reaching a plateau. However, the reason for the cutting forces reduction
is still somewhat unclear. Thermal softening, a decrease in friction
or segmental chip formation (assuming that heat evacuation
through the chip is energetically favourable) at high cutting speeds

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +351 234 370830; fax: +351 234 370953.
E-mail address: pdavim@ua.pt (J.P. Davim).
0261-3069/$ - see front matter 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.matdes.2008.04.029

are possible causes [5]. Unlike conventional machining, where chip

formation is followed by plastic deformation, at HSM serrated chip
or segmentation processes occur [6].

2. Plastic strain and plastic strain rate effects during HSM

Machining of metals is a non-linear process and the complex
coupling between deformation and temperature is not completely
understood nowadays. The deformation process is concentrated
in a small zone and the temperatures that are generated in this zone
greatly affect both the tool and the workpiece. High cutting temperatures strongly inuence tool wear, tool life, workpiece surface
integrity, chip formation mechanism and also contribute to thermal
deformation of the cutting tool. An increase in temperature in the
primary deformation zone softens the material, allowing for lower
cutting forces and less energy in the shear process [2]. It is commonly known that during metal cutting, a great amount of deformation energy is transformed into heat near the tool cutting edge.
A small percentage of this heat is transferred through conduction
to the uncut material ahead of the cutting tool, having an effect in
the integrity of the machined workpiece. The bigger percentage of
heat remains in the removed chip and this produces a local increase
of temperature in a narrow zone where high strain occurs and adiabatic shear bands are formed [4] (shear bands can be observed in a
metal if the plastic strain rate is higher than 102 s1).
The nature of the plastic strain and related phenomenon of
materials still remain considerably unclear nowadays. It has been
realized that strain rate and temperature affect material properties,
although strain rate has a greater effect on ow stress in hot-work-

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J.P. Davim, C. Maranho / Materials and Design 30 (2009) 160165

ing range and a smaller effect in the cold-working range, especially

when large strains are present [7,8]. Plastic deformation of steel is
temperature sensitive, the rate at which the deformation takes
place also has inuence on the plastic strain. This sensitivity is directly related with time and temperature dependency of the mechanisms that govern the deformation and the evolution of the
deformation in the material. The main mechanism by which plastic
strain takes place is thermally activated motion of dislocations past
obstacles that exist within the lattice over a wide range of strain
rates and cutting temperatures. The material response is signicantly affected by the nature and density of the obstacles (which
may change as the deformation takes place). When dealing with
metals, experimental results show that the stress required for plastic strain often reduces with the increase of temperature and with
the decrease of plastic strain rate. It can then be said that temperature and plastic strain rate greatly inuence the material response. In general, the stress decreases with the increasing of
temperature and decreasing the plastic strain rate [9]. Actually,
temperature and strain rate effects are coupled, since one inuences the other. Temperature affects the rate of deformation,
which is controlled mainly by a thermally activated mechanism.
On the other hand, plastic strain at high rate generates signicant
heating and cause an increase in temperature which leads to
mechanical instability and the localization of deformation into narrow sheets of material (the adiabatic shear bands), which act as
precursor for eventual material failure [7].
Deformation at low strain rates or under quasi-static loading, is
relatively homogeneous because is governed by slip and twinning
mechanisms. On the contrary, deformation at high strain rates is a
much complex phenomenon that is characterized by extreme
strain localization along the adiabatic shear bands. Each material
has a different susceptibility to adiabatic shear because it depends
on properties like heat capacity, heat conductivity, strength level,
microstructure, geometry, defects and strain rates. It is also known
that adiabatic shear banding precedes material failures at high
strain rates. Adiabatic shear banding is usually accompanied by a
loss in stress capacity owing to intense thermal softening in the
shear bands and, in many cases, shear bands serve as sites for crack
initiation and growth during subsequent dynamic fracture [10].
Localized adiabatic shearing can be considered a unique consequence of severe plastic deformation at high strain rates. As both
thermal and strain softening lead to rapid deformation localization,
a shear band forms via a nearly adiabatic process. Also of note is
that grain renement can occur within shear bands and severe
plastic strain (which can reach 520) can also appear within these
shear bands [11].
Plastic strain rate can be divided in three zones: the low strain
rate region (<1 s1), the medium rate region (comprehended between the low and high strain rate region values) and the high
strain rate region (above 103 or 104 s1). The inuence of these
zones on the ow stress is, respectively, weak, sensitive and great
[7].
Duan et al. [12] showed that the plastic strain rate increases
with the increase of the cutting speed. These authors also concluded that the hardness of the workpiece is able to inuence
the chip formation and the deformation mechanism.
The objective was to study the behavior of AISI 1045 steel when
machined with HSM (in this case, 3000 m/min). Also of note is that
a conventional machining (of 300 m/min) was also applied to the
workpiece keeping the remaining machining parameters the same.
This allowed for a better comparison between both conventional
and high speed cutting regimes. The experimental values worth
noting for the calculation of the plastic strain and plastic strain rate
are presented in Table 1 (taken from Denkena et al. [13]).
From the developed work within this paper, it was possible to
predict with good precision both plastic strain and plastic strain

Table 1
Literature values (presented in Denkena et al. [13])
Experimental values
Cutting speed (Vc) (m/min)
Elemental chip thickness (Dx) (lm)
Chip compression ratio (k)
Feed (f) (mm/rev)
Depth of cut (ap) (mm)
Rake angle (c) ()
Relief angle (a) ()
Workpiece material
Tool material
Tool coating

300 (conventional machining)

21
2.1
0.3
3
6
6
AISI 1045
HC P30-P40
Ti(CN)/Al2O3

3000 (HSM)
10
1.5

rate with the nite element analysis when compared to the literature data supplied by Denkena et al. [13].
3. Analytic model
Merchant theory [14] was followed to make all the calculations
(all the presented results in the analytic model are based on literature values [13]).
The chip compression ratio is obtained with the following
formula:
k

t0
t

where t0 is the measured chip thickness within the experimental

process and t is the theoretical chip thickness that can be obtained
by
t f  sin v
where f is the feed rate and v is the tool position angle.
The shear angle can be obtained by


cos c
/ arctg
k  sin c

where c is the tool rake angle. The plastic strain was calculated
using the following method:
e

1 k2  2k  sin c
k  cos c

Finally, the plastic strain rate can be found with the following
formula:
e_

V c  cos c
1

cos/  c Dx

where k is the chip compression ratio, Vc is the cutting speed, / is

the cutting shear angle and Dx is the elemental chip thickness.
For a cutting speed of 300 m/min:


cos6
33
/ arctg
2:1  sin6
1 2:12  2  2:1  sin6
2:8
2:1  cos6
300
 cos6
1

e_ 60
30:1  104 s1
cos33 6
21  106
e

For a cutting speed of 3000 m/min:



cos6
43
/ arctg
1:5  sin6
1 1:52  2  1:5  sin6
2:39
1:5  cos6
3000
 cos6
1
e_ 60

67  105 s1
cos43 6
10  106
e

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J.P. Davim, C. Maranho / Materials and Design 30 (2009) 160165

Table 2
Software input parameters

4. Finite element analysis

Workpiece
Workpiece length
Workpiece height
Workpiece material
Tool
Rake angle
Rake face length
Relief angle
Relief face length
Cutting edge radius
Material
Coating (3 layers)

4.0 mm
3.0 mm
AISI 1045
6
2.0 mm
6
2.0 mm
0.02 mm
Cemented carbide (P)
Al2O3:0.03 mm
TiC:0.015 mm
TiN:0.015 mm

Process
Depth of cut
Length of cut
Feed
Cutting speed
Friction coefcient*
Coolant
Simulation
Maximum number of nodes
Maximum element size
Minimum element size
*

3 mm
4.0 mm
0.3 mm/rev
300 and 3000 m/min
0.69 for 300 m/min and 0.31 for 3000 m/min
Not used
12,000
0.1 mm
0.02 mm

Values obtained using the experimental cutting and feed forces [13].

Table 3
Errors between analytical and simulation values for both conventional machining and
HSM

300 m/min
3000 m/min

Plastic strain (%)

Plastic strain rate (%)

2.5
1.6

1.4
6.5

Table 4
Comparison between analytical and simulation values for both plastic strain and
plastic strain rate at conventional machining and HSM (the presented values should
be considered an average)

300 m/min
3000 m/min

Plastic strain
(analytical)

Plastic strain
(simulated)

Plastic strain
rate (analytical)
(s1)

Plastic strain
rate (simulated)
(s1)

2.77
2.36

2.84
2.40

2:74  105
6:3  106

2:78  105
6:7  106

Predicted results may vary with software and with the input
data so the choice of the software is of extreme importance. A nite
element software, specic for machining operations, was chosen to
simulate the metal cutting process (in this case, a turning operation). Therefore, AdvantedgeTM, supplied by Third Wave Systems,
was used in this study. This commercial software package was
built from the start with metal cutting operations in mind, allowing to simulate turning, drilling, milling, micro machining, etc in
both two or three dimensions. It uses adaptive meshing to help
improving the quality and the accuracy of the predicted results
and it also supports several workpiece material library. Unfortunately, the solver cannot be controlled by the user (is controlled
by the software itself which sometimes can be problematic) but
fast setups for several simulations can be done easily because of
the easy to use software interface.
The input parameters (for the simulation) of the machining
operation can be found in Table 2.
Third Wave AdvantedgeTM allows improvement and optimization of machining processes and with it, is possible to determine
optimum machining parameters and tool congurations allowing
lower cutting and feed forces and temperature, without spending
time and money with experimental processes.
To model the thermalvisco plastic behavior of the workpiece
materials, the software uses a constitutive equation, the
JohnsonCook law, which can be represented by the following
formula:

 

m 
T  T room
e_
req A Ben 1 C ln
1
T m  T room
e_0

where e is the plastic strain, e_ is the plastic strain rate (s1), e_ 0 is the
reference plastic strain rate (s1), T is the temperature of the workpiece material (C), Tm is the melting temperature of the workpiece
material (C), and Troom is the room temperature (C). Coefcient A
is the yield strength (MPa), B is the hardening modulus (MPa) and C
is the strain rate sensitivity coefcient, n is the hardening coefcient and m the thermal softening coefcient [15].
The friction coefcient was obtained using the Coulomb model
and was calculated through the following reasoning:
U

F f F c  tan y
F c  F f  tan y

where Ff represents the feed force, Fc the cutting force and c is the
tool rake angle.

Fig. 1. Plastic strain distribution in the workpiece, chip and burr. (a) 300 m/min, and (b) 3000 m/min.

J.P. Davim, C. Maranho / Materials and Design 30 (2009) 160165

163

Fig. 2. Plastic strain rate distribution in the workpiece, chip and burr. (a) 300 m/min, and (b) 3000 m/min.

Fig. 3. Comparison between experimentation and simulation for the plastic strain
(a) and plastic strain rate (b) for the machining of AISI 1045. The cutting speed was
300 m/min with a feed of 0.3 mm/rev and a depth of cut of 3 mm.

It is also important to refer that the workpiece height is more

than 5 times bigger than the feed. This ratio is of extreme impor-

Fig. 4. Comparison between experimentation and simulation for the plastic strain
(a) and plastic strain rate (b) for the machining of AISI 1045. The cutting speed was
3000 m/min with a feed of 0.3 mm/rev and a depth of cut of 3 mm.

tance to obtain simulations with good precision and the RTS (relative tool sharpness) which is, by denition

164

RTS

J.P. Davim, C. Maranho / Materials and Design 30 (2009) 160165

tr
rn

where tr is the uncut chip thickness (mainly affected by the feed)

and rn is the tool edge radius [16,17] is bigger than 10 which is considered to be the minimum value to have reliable simulations.
5. Results and discussion
In this paper, the validation was made using the experimental
data given in Denkena et al. [13] so it was possible to calculate both
experimental plastic strain and plastic strain rate. Therefore, the
obtained results were compared with the predicted values found
in the simulations. The errors between experimentation and simulation were calculated using the following formula and can be
found in Table 3:
Error

jExperimental value  Simulated valuej

 100%
Experimental value

In Table 4, a comparison between the analytical and simulated values for both the plastic strain and plastic strain rate is presented (all
values should be considered an average in the primary shear zone).
Iqbal et al. [18] stated that a realistic value for the friction coefcient is comprehended between 0.6 and 0.75 when machining
AISI 1045 with a cemented carbide cutting tool (with conventional
cutting speeds). The simulations in the present paper were conducted under a friction value of 0.69 for 300 m/min (conventional
machining) and 0.31 for 3000 m/min (HSM). The friction values
were obtained using Coulomb model and the experimental forces.
A validation of the plastic strain and plastic strain rate was conducted in order to verify the simulated values. However, this analysis was made using analytic methods (with experimental
measured data as an input for the formulation).
In Fig. 1, a comparison of the distribution of the plastic strain in
the workpiece and chip between both cutting regimes is presented.
Like expected, the plastic strain had felt a slight reduction in the
average value from the higher cutting speed to the lower cutting
speed (from 2.84 at 300 m/min to 2.40 at 3000 m/min in the simulated process and from 2.77 at 300 m/min to 2.36 at 3000 m/min
in the experimental process). This behavior can be explained by the
fact that the workpiece material suffered both a thermal softening
and a friction reduction due to the increase of the cutting speed
from 300 to 3000 m/min. When machined at 300 m/min, the simulated average temperature was about 1200 C and when machined at 3000 m/min, the simulated average temperature
reached about 1400 C. The friction coefcient, like already mentioned, has seen a decrease with the increase of the cutting speed.
The affected zone by the plastic strain is higher when machining at
high speed (comparing with the conventional speed machining).
The comparison between the plastic strain rates on both cutting
regimes can be observed in Fig. 2. The distribution of the strain rate
can be seen in the workpiece and chip. Once more, the results converged to what was initially expected. As the cutting speed increases, the plastic strain rate increases accordingly, showing a
rise from 2:78  105 at 300 m/min to 6:7  106 at 3000 m/min in
the simulated process and from 2:74  105 at 300 m/min to
6:3  106 at 3000 m/min in the experimental process. The affected
zone by the plastic strain rate is also higher when machining at
high speed (comparing with the conventional speed machining).
Also of note is that the elemental chip thickness is more evident
when machining at high cutting speeds and the chip has more curling when machined at higher cutting speeds (like can be observed
in both Figs. 1 and 2).
In Figs. 3 and 4, a comparison between the simulated and experimental plastic strain and plastic strain rate (using analytical models) values are presented.

A reduction in the cutting force can be understood as an effect

of thermal softening (this causes a change in the effective stress
strain curve of the workpiece material, increasing the shear angle
and lowering this way the amount of plastic deformation required
to deform the chip). Although not observed in the simulated process, segmented chips cause an additional decrease in the cutting
force due to being energetically favourable.
6. Conclusions
Friction coefcient is signicantly lower in high speed machining (HSM) when compared to traditional speed machining. This
leads to a reduction in the plastic strain, acting together with a
thermal softening due to an increase in the cutting speed. As deformation proceeds, adiabatic heating occurs along the narrow bands
and thermal softening begins to dominate the deformation process.
This has an impact in the ow stress (starts to decrease with the
increase in strain). If a critical strain is reached, mechanical instability results in strain localization along narrow bands.
It was possible to determine with great precision both the plastic strain and plastic strain rate. For conventional speed machining,
the plastic strain presented an error of only 2.5% and 1.4% for the
plastic strain rate. In high speed machining, the errors are also very
small presenting 1.6% of error in the plastic strain and 6.5% in the
plastic strain rate. Having that said, it is believed that nite element analysis can be considered a good method to predict both
plastic strain and plastic strain rate in conventional and high speed
machining.
To sum it all up, the effect of HSM was felt in multiple ways like:
 a considerable reduction in the friction coefcient from conventional to HSM,
 in the chip morphology (more serrated shape in HSM),
 an increase in the cutting temperature which in turn causes a
reduction of the plastic strain, and
 a signicant increase of the plastic strain rate from conventional
to HSM.
Acknowledgments
The authors wish to thank the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), Portugal, Project POCTI/EME/61676/2004, for the use
of the software licence Advantedge.
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