Numerical prediction and experimental investigation of residual stresses in sequential milling of GH4169 considering initial stress effect

Residual stresses affect the service life and cause the deformation of machined parts. Therefore, the study on the development of residual stresses during machining operation is very important. For this, analytical and numerical models have been developed to predict the residual stresses for single-step machining operation. However, the parts are usually machined with a serial of production processes. A numerical model for predicting residual stress in sequential side milling GH4169, considering initial stress, was proposed in this research. The initial residual stress distribution due to previous-step milling was considered in the proposed model. It was assumed that this initial residual stress value changed with the depth from the machined surface, while the residual stress on the identical horizontal plane was assumed with uniform distribution. The proposed numerical simulation model could predict the stress value of the machined surface, the stress value of the compression valley, and the residual stress distribution in the depth direction beneath the machined surface with high accuracy. Experimental investigations of sequential side milling GH4169 were conducted and the generated residual stresses were measured. The distribution trend and influence rule of residual stress between two sequential milling steps were analyzed. The residual stress distribution beneath the surface showed a spoon-shaped pattern. The thickness of the residual stress influence layer (RSIL) after the current milling step was affected by the depth of cut and the RSIL thickness of the previous milling step. The numerical model could predict the thickness of RSIL and optimize the depth of cut in sequential side milling.