Model of surface roughness and material removal using abrasive flow machining of selective laser melted channels

Abstract

Purpose Internal channels produced by selective laser melting (SLM) have rough surfaces that require post-processing. The purpose of this paper is to develop an empirical model for predicting the material removal and surface roughness (SR) of SLM-manufactured channels owing to abrasive flow machining (AFM). Design/methodology/approach A rheological model was developed to simulate the viscosity and power-law index of an AFM medium. To simulate the pressure distribution and velocity in the SLM channels, the fluid behavior and SR in the channels were simulated by using computational fluid dynamics. The results of this simulation were then applied to create an empirical model that can be used to predict the SR and material removal thickness. To verify this empirical model, it was applied to an actual part fabricated by SLM. The results were compared with the measurements of the SR and channel diameter subsequent to AFM. Findings The proposed model exhibits maximum deviation between the model and the measurement of -1.1% for the down-skin SR, -0.2% for the up-skin SR and -0.1% for material removal thickness. Practical implications The results of this study show that the proposed model can avoid expensive iterative tests to determine whether a given channel design leads to the desired SR after smoothing by AFM. Therefore, this model helps to design an AFM-ready channel geometry. Originality/value In this paper, a quantitatively validated AFM model was proposed for complex SLM channels with varying orientation angles.