Title: Parametric optimisation of EDM on Al-Cu/TiB2 in-situ metal matrix composites using TOPSIS method

Authors: P. Senthil; S. Vinodh; Adarsh Kumar Singh

Addresses: Department of Production Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli-620 015, Tamil Nadu, India ' Department of Production Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli-620 015, Tamil Nadu, India ' Department of Production Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli-620 015, Tamil Nadu, India

Abstract: The article presents a study which focuses on optimisation of electric discharge machining (EDM) process parameters of Al-CuTiB2 metal matrix composites (MMCs). MMCs were synthesised using in-situ casting and L18 orthogonal arrays (OA) were applied to optimise EDM process parameters. Input parameters considered were discharge current, pulse on time and pulse off time; response parameters include metal removal rate (MRR), tool wear rate (TWR) and surface roughness (SR). A multi attribute decision making (MADM) technique namely technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) were applied for solving multi-criteria optimisation in the EDM process. The optimal EDM process parameters were found and the results obtained using TOPSIS was agreed by practitioners.

Keywords: electrical discharge machining; EDM; metal matrix composites; MMCs; multi-objective optimisation; multicriteria decision making; MCDM; TOPSIS; parameter optimisation; electro-discharge machining; in-situ casting; orthogonal arrays; discharge current; pulse on time; pulse off time; metal removal rate; MRR; tool wear rate; surface roughness; surface quality.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMMM.2014.063922

International Journal of Machining and Machinability of Materials, 2014 Vol.16 No.1, pp.80 - 94

Received: 30 Oct 2013
Accepted: 31 Jan 2014

Published online: 09 Aug 2014 *

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