Journal of Materials Processing Technology 164–165 (2005) 1204–1211 Finite element modelling of temperature distribution in the cutting zone in turning processes with differently coated tools W. Grzesik ∗ , M. Bartoszuk, P. Nieslony Department of Manufacturing Engineering and Production Automation, Technical University of Opole, Mikolajczyka St. 5, 45-271 Opole, Poland Abstract The aim of this study is to check the applicability of various simulation models to obtain finite element solutions of cutting forces, specific cutting energy and adequate temperatures for a range of coated tool materials and defined cutting conditions. Commercial explicit finite element code Thirdwave AdvantEdge has been used in simulations of orthogonal cutting processes performed by means of uncoated carbide and coated tools. The latter were equipped with progressively increasing number of thin layers including TiC, TiN and Al 2 O 3 films deposited onto ISO P20 carbide substrates. Results showing the tool–chip interfacial friction influencing the temperature distribution fields, as the consequence of using coated tools, are the main and novel findings of this paper. The various thermal simulation results obtained were compared with the measurements of cutting temperature and discussed in terms of literature data. © 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Keywords: Finite element simulation; Tool coating; Cutting temperature distribution 1. Introduction It is obviously accepted paradigm that the substantial im- provement of metal removal processes, which dominate in the today’s manufacturing, can also be achieved by progress in modelling of these processes at a system level, that means by generation of the house of models [1]. For the past fifty years metal cutting researchers have developed many modelling techniques including analytical techniques, slip-line solu- tions, empirical approaches and finite element techniques. In recent years, the finite element method has particularly become the main tool for simulating metal cutting processes [2,3]. Finite element models are widely used for calculat- ing the stress, strain, strain-rate and temperature distributions in the primary, secondary and tertiary sub-cutting zones. In consequence, temperatures in the tool, chip and workpiece, as well as cutting forces, plastic deformation (shear angles and chip thickness), chip formation and possibly its breaking can be determined faster than using costly and time con- suming experiments. Typical approaches for numerical mod- elling of metal cutting processes are Lagrangian and Eule- ∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +48 77 4006 290; fax: +48 77 4006 342. E-mail address: grzesik@po.opole.pl (W. Grzesik). rian techniques, as well as a combination of both called an arbitrary Lagrangian–Eulerian formulation (denoted in the literature by ALE acronym) [2,4]. It should be noticed that all these methods are mathematically equivalent. The major difference is that for Lagrangian formulation the discretized mesh is attached to the workpiece and the material model is elastic–plastic, only plastic, or viscoplastic, whereas for Eule- rian finite element models the workpiece material is assumed to flow through a meshed control volume creating the cutting zone and the strain has to be computed from the strain-rates by integrating along stream lines. Hence, in the ALE formu- lation there is a need to relate the stationary (Eulerian) frame to the moving (Lagrangian) frame. The following subsections describe briefly the typical procedure for Lagrangian formu- lation used in this study to generate the thermal model of machining process. Early finite element analyses were performed by Usui and Shirakashi [5], Iwata et al. [6] and Strenkowski and Carroll [7] who were the first to use Eulerian formulations for steady- state metal cutting simulations. On the other hand, Maru- sich and Ortiz [8] has developed a Lagrangian formulation in which the material model contains deformation hardening, thermal softening and strain-rate sensitivity tightly coupled with a transient heat conduction analysis appropriate for finite 0924-0136/$ – see front matter © 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.jmatprotec.2005.02.136