MULTI-OBJECTIVE OPTIMIZATION OF EDM PROCESS PARAMETERS FOR MACHINING OF HYBRID ALUMINUM METAL MATRIX COMPOSITES (Al7075/TiC/B4C) USING GENETIC ALGORITHM

Abstract

This study deals with the investigation on the effect of Electrical Discharge Machining (EDM) parameters during machining of hybrid composite (Al 7075/TiC/B4C). The optimum process parameters of die sinking EDM like pulse current, pulse duration and gap voltage on metal removal rate, tool wear rate and surface finish were investigated. Full factorial experimental design was selected for experiments. Analysis of variance was employed to study the influence of process parameters and their interactions on response variables. Among the process parameters considered, it was observed that the pulse current was found to be more influential in affecting MRR, TWR and SR. The other parameters have little effect on the response variable. Multi-objective optimization study was also performed using genetic algorithm to find the optimum parameter setting for controversial objective function combination such as high MRR and low SR and High MRR and low TWR. Scanning electron microscope study was performed to study the surface characteristics.