ORIGINAL ARTICLE Predictive modeling for flank wear progression of coated carbide tool in turning hardened steel under practical machining conditions Satish Chinchanikar & S. K. Choudhury Received: 28 March 2013 /Accepted: 18 August 2014 /Published online: 16 September 2014 # Springer-Verlag London 2014 Abstract Growing needs for economical and environmental friendly manufacturing processes have increased usage of coated carbide tools in dry and high-speed machining of hardened steel. However, most undesirable characteristic of the machining process is tool wear; especially the flank wear, which adversely affects the dimensional accuracy and product quality. Therefore, prediction of flank wear progression will be extremely valuable. In the present study, a flank wear rate model is developed incorporating abrasion, adhesion, and diffusion as dominant wear mechanisms. Given the cutting conditions, tool geometry, and workpiece and cutting tool material properties, the model predicts flank wear progression with machining time. Developed model is calibrated and experimentally validated in turning of hardened AISI 4340 steel at different levels of hardness using chemical vapor deposition (CVD)-applied multilayer TiCN/Al 2 O 3 /TiN-coat- ed carbide tool under practical 3-D machining conditions. As predicted results generally agree well with the experimental observations, proposed model could be helpful to predict the flank wear progression and hence to support the optimization studies within the domain of the cutting parameters. Keywords Flank wear . Wear modeling . Hardened steel . Coated carbide tools . Turning Abbreviations A w Average area of welded asperity joint (mm 2 ) ΔA Relative sliding area between tool flank and work surface in time interval Δt b Width of cut (mm) C s Side cutting edge angle (deg) C 0 Concentration of diffusing spices at the tool-work interface (mole/mm 2 ) c Specific heat of workpiece (J/kg K) D Diffusion coefficient (mm 2 /min) D 0 Diffusion coefficient related to the frequency of atomic oscillations (mm 2 /min) d Depth of cut (mm) dV abrasion Tool volume loss due to abrasion in time interval Δt (mm 3 ) dV adhesion Tool volume loss due to adhesion in time interval Δt (mm 3 ) dV diffusion Tool volume loss due to diffusion in time interval Δt (mm 3 ) dV Total Total tool material removed in time interval Δt (mm 3 ) F fw , F rw Forces due to flank wear in feed and radial directions in 3-D turning (N) F nw Normal force on the tool flank due to flank wear alone (N) f Feed (mm/rev) f r % Fraction of the normal load supported by abrasive particle H a Hardness of the abrasive particle at any temperature T (°C) H s Hardness of the softer material (N/mm 2 ) H t Tool hardness at any temperature T (°C) h w Height of welded joint torn off in shear (mm) J average Flux of diffusing atoms (atoms per unit time) (atoms/mm 2 -s) K, K 1 Constants K abrasion Dimensionless abrasive wear coefficient K adhesion Adhesive wear coefficient (mm 3 /N) K diffusion Diffusive wear coefficient (mm/min 1/2 ) k w Thermal conductivity of the workpiece (W/m K) m Atomic weight of diffusing spices (kg) n Constant S. Chinchanikar : S. K. Choudhury (*) Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India e-mail: choudhry@iitk.ac.in Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2015) 76:1185–1201 DOI 10.1007/s00170-014-6285-6