Journal of Manufacturing Processes 15 (2013) 483494

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Journal of Manufacturing Processes

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Technical Paper

Experimental investigation, intelligent modeling and multi-characteristics optimization of dry WEDM process of AlSiC metal matrix composite
Reza Kashiry Fard a , Reza Azar Afza b , Reza Teimouri c,
a b c

Department of Mechanical Engineering, Islamic Azad University, Kordestan Branch of Science and Research, Sanandaj, Iran Department of Mechanical Engineering, Malek Ashtar University of Technology, Tehran, Iran Department of Mechanical Engineering, Babol University of Technology, Babol, Iran

a r t i c l e

i n f o

a b s t r a c t
Dry wire electrical discharge machining (WEDM) is an environmentally friendly modication of the oil WEDM process in which liquid dielectric is replaced by a gaseous medium. In the present work, parametric analysis has been fullled while dry WEDM of AlSiC metal matrix composite. Experiments were designed and conducted based on L27 Taguchis orthogonal array to study the effect of pulse on time, pulse off time, gap voltage, discharge current, wire tension and wire feed on cutting velocity (CV) and surface roughness (SR). Firstly, a series of exploratory experiments has been conducted to identify appropriate gas and wire material based on the values of cutting velocity. After selection of best gas and best wire, they were used for later stage of experiments. Analysis of variances (ANOVA) has been performed to identify signicant factors. In order to correlate relationship between process inputs and responses, an adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) has been employed to predict the process characteristics based on experimental observation. At the end, an articial bee colony (ABC) algorithm has been associated with ANFIS models to maximize CV and minimize SR, simultaneously. Then the optimal solutions that obtained through ANFIS-ABC technique have been compared with numbers of conrmatory experiments. Results indicated that oxygen gas and brass wire guarantee superior cutting velocity. Also, according to ANOVA, pulse on time and discharge current were found to have signicant effect on CV and SR. In modeling of CV and SR by ANFIS, it was resulted that the proposed method has superiority in prediction of them in the ranges of factors beyond the training condition. Also, association of ANFIS with ABC can nd the optimal combination of process parameters accurately according to the conrmatory experiments. 2013 The Society of Manufacturing Engineers. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Article history: Received 5 January 2013 Received in revised form 7 September 2013 Accepted 10 September 2013 Available online 6 October 2013 Keywords: Dry WEDM Modeling Optimization

1. Introduction The Al/SiC metal matrix composite (MMC) is a hard and tough composite with noticeable wear resistance that satises growing demands of material with higher mechanical properties and lower weight. Despite the superior mechanical and thermal properties of Al/SiC MMC, its poor machinability has been the main deterrent to its substitution for metal parts. The hard abrasive-reinforcement phase causes rapid tool wear during machining and, consequently, high machining costs. For machining of this material with conventional machining process the polycrystalline diamond (PCD) tools are the only tool material that is capable of providing a useful tool life during the machining of Al/SiC MMC [1]. In the case of

Corresponding author. Tel.: +98 9369098670; fax: +98 1125233899. E-mail addresses: Reza teimoori@yahoo.com, reza teimouri@stu.nit.ac.ir (R. Teimouri).

conventional machining of Al/SiC several studies have been investigated. El-Gallab and Sklad [24] conducted vast research on turning of Al/SiC to nd optimum tool and process conditions in which higher tool life and surface integrity are obtained. Ozben et al. [5] studied on mechanical properties and machinability of Al/SiC. They indicated that variation of the percentage of reinforcement can affect on its mechanical properties, tool life and surface roughness. Due to high wear resistance and hardness of Al/SiC, it cannot be machined with conventional machining process simply. Hence non-conventional machining methods can be applied as an economical and functional solution for machining of Al/SiC. In this case electrical discharge machining (EDM) is extensively used for machining of Al/SiC [68]. Also, the electro-chemical machining process is an applicable method that can machine this material independently of its hardness [9]. Wire electrical discharge machining process (WEDM) is a potential electro-thermal process which is useful for machining such difcult-to-cut electrically conductive materials. The material

1526-6125/$ see front matter 2013 The Society of Manufacturing Engineers. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jmapro.2013.09.002

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Fig. 1. A schematic diagram of wire EDM process.

removal mechanism of WEDM process is really like to die sinking EDM process with a little difference in tool electrode shape. Instead of using pre-shaped tool which used most commonly in die sinking EDM, a thin 0.050.3 mm diameter wire acts as a tool in WEDM. Fig. 1 shows a schematic diagram of WEDM process. Like a die sinking EDM, in WEDM all sparks occur in a dielectric which plays important role in the process. In WEDM, the dielectric ushed in gap space and its commonly material is liquid oil. Use of mineral oil-based dielectric liquids is the major cause of environmental concerns that associated with the EDM process and its alternatives. Dry WEDM is an environment-friendly modication of the oil WEDM process in which the liquid dielectric is replaced by a gaseous medium. Dielectric wastes generated during the oil WEDM process are very toxic and cannot be recycled. Also, toxic fumes are generated during machining due to high temperature and chemical breakdown of mineral oils. The use of oil as the dielectric uid also makes it necessary to take extra precaution to prevent re hazards. Replacing liquid dielectric by gases is an emerging eld in the environment-friendly EDM technology [1012]. In dry WEDM process high velocity gas that is owing through nuzzles into the inter-electrode gap can substitute the liquid dielectric. The ow of high velocity gas into the gap facilitates removal of debris and prevents excessive heating of the wire and workpiece at the discharge spots. There are numbers of researches that fullled parametric study and developed empirical models on WEDM process. In this case, Sarkar et al. [13] developed mathematical model through central composite design of experiments to model cutting speed and surface nish of TiAl alloy in trim cutting process. El-Taweel et al. [14] applied response surface methodology (RSM) for modeling of machining parameters WEDM of Inconel 601. They modeled volumetric material removal rate, wire wear rate and surface roughness according to variation of peak current, pulse on time, wire tension and water pressure. Spedding and Wang [15] applied the RSM along with neural network for modeling of cutting speed, surface roughness and surface waviness of WEDM process. Also, Saha et al. [16] conducted extensive experiments and used their observation for modeling of WEDM process using soft computing methods. They used mathematical model based on regression analysis and neural network with back-propagation learning algorithm for modeling of cutting speed and surface roughness of WC-Co. Results indicated

that the neural network crates more precise prediction rather than regression technique. Although the neural network has superiority in modeling of manufacturing process rather than statistical models and mathematical equations, but the main weakness of neural network is its dependency on large amount of data for a problem in which many inputs are contributed. Also, in the case of manufacturing processes with complex behavior the neural network cannot predict the process characteristics as well. It means that for a process with complex behavior some linguistic terms are needed to provide a precise prediction. Thus, application of fuzzy logic can be benecial for modeling of complex behavior. But construction of an appropriate fuzzy membership function and fuzzy rules is really difcult and time consuming job. Thus, for modeling of a complex process with small amount of data in a short time, a method with both concepts of neural network and fuzzy logic is needed. Therefore, an adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) is proposed as a hybrid predictive approach that uses both meanings of neural network and fuzzy logic for modeling of complex processes. According to above explanation, the advantageous of ANFIS model is to predict the performance of a given process in factors ranges outside the predened ranges for the training conditions. This is due to existing linguistic terms of fuzzy theory in the layers of ANFIS. It means that this network can act as an articial human brain and it can estimate the process performance in wider ranges of training condition. This claim will be proved later in the Section 4.3. The literature [17] is a relative work which was written by corresponding author about superiority of ANIFS in modeling mechanical properties of friction stir welding process. According to the surveyed literatures, there is not a certain publication that uses the ANFIS for modeling of a complex process such as dry wire EDM process. Hence, application of this method in the present work is quite novel. Recently, using non-traditional optimization algorithm nds its application in single-response and multi-responses of manufacturing processes. Well-known algorithms such as GA, SA, PSO, and ICA have been widely used for optimization of processes with multiple quality characteristics. Articial bee colony (ABC) is a swarm based intelligent optimization algorithm which has been inspired by foraging behavior of honey bees in the case of nding food. There are not many publications which used ABC for optimization of manufacturing processes. Samanta and Chakraborty [18] used the ABC algorithm for parametric optimization of some non-traditional machining process including electro chemical machining, electrochemical-discharge machining and electrochemical micro-machining. Teimouri and Baseri [19] applied ABC for simultaneous optimization of material removal rate and surface roughness in dry EDM process. Also, they used ABC for minimizing prediction error of mechanical properties of friction stir welding process [20]. According to the reviewed works, it can be inferred that application of ABC for optimization of dry WEDM process is quite novel. The present work consists of experimental investigation, simulation and optimization of WEDM process while using gaseous dielectric. Objectives this work could be summarized as follows: (I) Implementation of WEDM process by using gaseous medium (II) Selection of the optimum gas based on values of cutting velocity and surface roughness (III) Selection of appropriate wire material based cutting velocity and surface roughness (IV) Investigation on effects of process parameters on dry WEDM characteristics and implementation of analysis of variances to nd signicant factors (V) Simulation of cutting velocity and surface roughness by ANFIS technique and verication of the results by conrmatory

R.K. Fard et al. / Journal of Manufacturing Processes 15 (2013) 483494 Table 1 main properties of workpiece. Nominal Composition 75%Al 606125%SiC Grain size Fine Hardness (HV) 12501650 Density (g/cm3 ) 3 Thermal conductivity (W/m K) 3100 Compressive strength (MPa) 4200

485

Modules of elasticity (GPa) 206

Table 2 Process parameter levels for various energy conditions to nd best gas and wire. Condition 1 (Low energy) 2 (Middle energy) 3 (High energy) Pulse on time (s) 106 116 126 Pulse off time (s) 60 50 40 Discharge current (A) 70 150 230 Gap voltage (V) 60 40 20

experiments in the ranges of factors beyond the predened ranges of factors in training. (VI) Multi-characteristics optimization of process by ABC to achieve higher cutting velocity and lower surface roughness simultaneously. (VII) Validation of optimal results by conducting verication experiments. 2. Experimentations 2.1. Experimental setup and materials A series of experiments were carried out on WED machine (TEHRAN EKRAM CNC AW-500) with Iso-pulse spark generator and maximum discharge current of 300 ampere manufactured in Iran. Instead of using oil liquid dielectric, the machine was modied by a gas injector to enter the high ow gas with inlet pressure of 2 bar. An air compressor provides gas ow with high pressure, and then by using of a regulator valve, the high pressure ow is broken to 2 bar ow. For providing oxygen and nitrogen medium, storages of oxygen and nitrogen with high pressure were used and their high pressure controlled by regulator valve. The workpiece material is Al/SiC metal matrix composite with high hardness and toughness in the shape of plate with dimensions of 125 mm 100 mm 24 mm. The properties of workpiece were presented in Table 1. Also the copper and brass wires with 0.1 mm diameter have been used as tool which was made vertical with the help of vertical block. The faces of each specimen were ground to generate accurate parallel sitting on the machine table. Then a reference point on the work piece was set for setting work co-ordinate system (WCS). The programming was done with the reference to the WCS. The reference point was dened by the ground edges of the work piece. The program was made for cutting operation of the work piece and a prole of 5 mm 5 mm square was cut. Based on the cutting prole, the cutting velocity can be calculated by ratio of machining length (e.g. 23 mm) on machining time. The WED machine that used in the present work can monitor the machining time and display the cutting velocity on machine indicator. In order to calculate the surface roughness of WEDMed specimens Mahr Marsurf surface prole meter with cut off of 0.5 mm and sampling length of 5 mm was used. The value of Ra has been selected as a main index for measuring the surface roughness. For each specimen measuring of surface roughness has been repeated for ve times to reduce the measuring error. Then average of measurements was reported as surface roughness. 2.2. Experimental plan In the present work, rstly a series of experiment have been carried out to determine optimum gas and wire based on value

Table 3 process parameters and their levels. Process parameter Pulse on time (Ton ) Pulse off time (Toff ) Gap voltage (VG ) Discharge current (Id ) Wire feed (WF) Wire tension (WT) Unit s s V A m/min g Level 1 106 40 20 70 4 4 Level 2 116 50 40 150 8 8 Level 3 126 60 60 230 12 12

of cutting velocity. For this purpose, numbers of 18 experimental tests are carried out under different conditions of discharge energies (various pulse on time, pulse off time, discharge current and gap voltage), various gaseous dielectrics (air, oxygen and nitrogen) and various wires (copper and brass). Table 2 claries various conditions of discharge energy. Due to lower cutting velocity of dry WEDM process rather than conventional WEDM [1012], gas and wire that cause higher cutting velocity are selected as a major gas and major tool for later stage of experiment. As it is known, the wire EDM process is an unconventional machining process in which many factors affect on its performance. Hence, in the next stage, pulse on time, pulse off time, gap voltage, discharge current, wire feed and wire tension are considered as the predominant factors of WEDM process. Due to wide range of factors, it was decided to use 6 factors-three levels L27 Taguchi orthogonal arrays design to optimize number of experiments. Selection of higher levels for each factors make the experimental times longer and it does not satisfy economical aspect of the work. Also, according to the literatures and our laboratory experience this design is useful for investigating effect of WEDM process factors on cutting velocity and surface roughness. A MINIITAB 17 package has been utilized to design and analysis of experiments. Table 3 presents process parameters and their levels. Also, design matrix and experimental results are presented in Table 4. 3. Methodologies 3.1. Adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) An adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system is a hybrid predictive model which uses both of neural network and fuzzy logic to generate mapping relationship between inputs and outputs [17]. The structure of this model consists of ve layers which each layer is constructed by several nodes. Such as a neural network, in an ANFIS structure the inputs of each layer are gained by the nodes from pervious layer. Fig. 2 describes an ANFIS structure. It can be inferred from Fig. 5 that the network includes m inputs (X1 , . . ., Xm ), which each one consists of n membership functions (MFs). Moreover, a layer with R fuzzy rules and also an output layer are contributed to

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Table 4 L27 design matrix and performance measured values. No Process factors Ton (s) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 106 106 106 106 106 106 106 106 106 116 116 116 116 116 116 116 116 116 126 126 126 126 126 126 126 126 126 Toff (s) 40 40 40 50 50 50 60 60 60 40 40 40 50 50 50 60 60 60 40 40 40 50 50 50 60 60 60 VG (V) 20 40 60 20 40 60 20 40 60 20 40 60 20 40 60 20 40 60 20 40 60 20 40 60 20 40 60 Id (A) 70 150 230 150 230 70 230 70 150 150 230 70 230 70 150 70 150 230 230 70 150 70 150 230 150 230 70 WF (m/min) 4 8 12 8 12 4 12 4 8 12 4 8 4 8 12 8 12 4 8 12 4 12 4 8 4 8 12 WT (g) 4 8 12 12 4 8 8 12 4 8 12 4 4 8 12 12 4 8 12 4 8 8 12 4 4 8 12 Responses CV (mm/min) 0.68 0.71 0.505 0.48 0.405 0.2 0.315 0.165 0.165 2.405 2.205 0.75 1.54 0.58 0.66 0.47 0.625 0.5 3.4 1.26 2.2 0.91 1.66 1.54 1.34 1.345 0.29 SR (m) 1.385 1.255 1.175 1.35 1.265 1.105 1.35 1.14 1.08 2.57 2.39 1.435 2.525 1.38 1.72 1.63 1.85 1.625 2.9 1.85 2.66 2.08 2.635 2.445 2.855 2.56 1.295

construction of this model. Number of nodes in rst layer can be calculated by product of m as number of inputs and n as number MFs (N = mn). Number of nodes in other layers (layer 24) relates to number of fuzzy rules (R). For further information about implementation of the ANFIS, the interested readers can read the reference [17]. In the present work the ANFIS technique is used to correlate mapping relationship between process inputs (e.g. pulse on time, pulse off time, gap voltage, discharge current, wire tension and wire feed) and main outputs (cutting velocity and surface roughness). Thus, for each output a separate ANFIS structure can be dened. For example for cutting velocity the rst layer of ANFIS structure is input layer that contains six nodes (for six inputs). And the last

layer (output layer) has one node that represents values of cutting velocity. 3.2. Articial bee colony algorithm An articial bee colony (ABC) algorithm was introduced by Karaboga [21] in 2005, for optimizing numerical problems. It was inspired by the intelligent foraging behavior of honey bees. The model consists of three essential components: employed and unemployed foraging bees, and food sources. The rst two components, employed and unemployed foraging bees, search for rich food sources, which is the third component, close to their hive.

Fig. 2. Basic structure of an ANFIS model [17].

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In ABC, a colony of articial forager bees (agents) search for rich articial food sources. To apply ABC, the considered optimization problem is rst converted to the problem of nding the best parameter vector which minimizes an objective function. In ABC, the colony of articial bees contains three groups of bees: employed bees associated with specic food sources, onlooker bees watching the dance of employed bees within the hive to choose a food source, and scout bees searching for food sources randomly. Both onlookers and scouts are also called unemployed bees.

Initially, all food source positions are discovered by scout bees. Thereafter, the nectar of food sources are exploited by employed bees and onlooker bees, and this continual exploitation will ultimately cause them to become exhausted. Then, the employed bee which was exploiting the exhausted food source becomes a scout bee in search of further food sources once again. In ABC, the position of a food source represents a possible solution to the problem and the nectar amount of a food source corresponds to the quality (tness) of the associated solution. The number of employed

Fig. 3. Flowchart of articial bee colony algorithm [19].

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3 2.5

bees is equal to the number of food sources (solutions) since each employed bee is associated with one and only one food source. As mentioned above, the articial bee colony algorithm consists of four main phases, initialize phase, employed bees phase, onlooker bees phase and scout bees phase. The clarication of each phase is dened as follow. Initialize phase: All the vectors of the population of food sources, Xm s are initialized by scout bees and control parameters are set. Since each food source Xm is a solution vector to the optimization problem, each Xm vector holds n variables (Xmi , i = 1, . . ., n) which are to be optimized so as to minimize the objective function. After initialization, the solutions is subjected to repeated cycles C = 1, . . ., MCN (maximum cycle number). This is for the search process of the employed bees, onlooker bees and scout bees. Employed bees phase: Employed bees search for new food sources (Vm ) having more nectar within the neighborhood of the food source (Xm ) in their memory. They nd a neighbor food source and then evaluate its protability (tness). For example, they can determine a neighbor food source (Vm ) using the formula given by: Vmi = Xmi + mi (Xmi Xki ) (1)

Copper wire and Air Copper wire and Nitrogen Copper wire and Oxygen Brass wire and Air 0

CV (mm/min)

1.5
1 0.5 0

Low

Medium Energy condion

High

Brass wire and Nitrogen Brass wire and Oxygen

Fig. 4. Effects of various types of gases and wires on cutting velocity under different conditions of discharge energy.

4. Results and discussions This section describes results that were obtained from experiments along with logical discussions based on process behaviors. The section involves 4 subsections. At rst, results of exploratory experiment are described to nd best gas and wire which cause to higher cutting velocity. Second subsection is allocated to effect of process parameters on performance measures. Modeling of cutting velocity, surface roughness and dimensional shift is described on third subsection. And nally, the fourth subsection denes step by step optimization of dry WEDM process by ABC algorithm. 4.1. Selection of appropriate gas and wire (exploratory experiments) Fig. 4 shows effect of various gases and various wires on cutting velocity under various conditions of discharge energy. It could be inferred from the gure that in all three energy condition the brass wire leads to higher cutting velocity than copper. This is due to higher specic resistance of brass rather than copper which may lead to increasing in the spark intensity and electrode gap [22]. Also Fig. 5 depicts that injecting oxygen gas in machining gap causes higher cutting velocity than air and nitrogen. While process uses oxygen gas, in addition of discharges, oxidation helps metal removal process and improves cutting velocity. In other word, both melting and chemical reactions contributed in metal removal process. Also, oxygen gas causes expulsion in interior electrode gap and has a positive effect on cutting velocity. It is shown in Fig. 4 that the air outperforms nitrogen in cutting velocity. The main reason for this phenomenon is contribution of oxygen gas in air. According to above discussions, the oxygen gas and brass wire have been selected as major dielectric and tool for later stage of experiments. 4.2. Effect of process parameters on performance measures 4.2.1. Analysis of cutting velocity Fig. 5 indicates effect of process parameters on cutting velocity. Also, Table 5 presents ANOVA results of cutting velocity. It could be inferred from the gure and table that pulse on time has greatest effect on cutting velocity by contribution of 11.7%. Also, the P-value represents that this factor is really signicant. Fig. 5(a) indicates that higher pulse on time leads to increase in cutting velocity due to higher thermal energy which transfers from wire to workpiece. Fig. 5(b) depicts that increasing in pulse off time leads lower cutting velocity due to increasing in non-cutting time. Also, Table 5 presents that pulse off time has signicant effect on cutting velocity due to its 0.00 P-value. Fig. 5(c) indicates that the gap set voltage resulting in lower cutting velocity. Contribution of gap voltage is about 2.44% and the P-value of 0.033 shows that it is not as signicant as pulse on time and pulse off time.

where Xk is the randomly selected food source, i is randomly chosen parameter index and mi is a random number within the range of [1,1]. After producing the new food source (Vm ) its tness is calculated and a greedy selection is applied between Vm and Xm . The tness value of the solution tm (Xm ) might be calculated for minimization problems using the following formula: fitm (Xm ) = fm (Xm ) abs(fm (Xm )) if fm 0 if fm < 0

(2)

where fm (Xm ) is the objective function value of solution Xm . Onlooker bees phase: Unemployed bees consist of two groups of bees: onlooker bees and scouts. Employed bees share their food source information with onlooker bees waiting in the hive and then onlooker bees probabilistically choose their food sources depending on this information. In ABC, an onlooker bee chooses a food source depending on the probability values calculated using the tness values provided by employed bees. For this purpose, a tness based selection technique can be used, such as the roulette wheel selection method. The probability value Pm with which Xm is chosen by an onlooker bee can be calculated by: Pm = fitm (Xm ) SN fit (X ) m=1 m m (3)

After a food source Xm for an onlooker bee is probabilistically chosen, a neighborhood source Vm is determined by using Eq. (1), and its tness value is computed. As in the employed bees phase, a greedy selection is applied between Vm and Xm . Hence, more onlookers are recruited to richer sources and positive feedback behavior appears. Scout bees phase: The unemployed bees that choose their food sources randomly are called scouts. Employed bees whose solutions cannot be improved through a predetermined number of trials, specied by the user of the ABC algorithm and called limit or abandonment criteria herein, become scouts and their solutions are abandoned. Then, the converted scouts start to search for new solutions, randomly. For instance, if solution Xm has been abandoned, the new solution discovered by the scout that was the employed bee of Xm . Hence those sources which are initially poor or have been made poor by exploitation are abandoned and negative feedback behavior arises to balance the positive feedback. The owchart of articial bee colony algorithm including main phases is visible in Fig. 3.

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Fig. 5. Effect of process parameters on cutting velocity.

Table 5 An ANOVA results to explore effects of process parameters on cutting velocity. Factor Pulse on time Pulse off time Gap voltage Discharge current Wire feed Wire tension Total Error
* **

Degree of freedom 2 2 2 2 2 2 26 14

Sum of square 1.9943 1.5374 0.4154 0.8431 0.1681 0.0436 5.0019

Mean of square 0.9974 0.7687 0.2074 0.4215 0.09305 0.0218

Contribution (%) 11.7 9.02 2.44 5 1.092 0.26

P-value <0.01 <0.01 0.033 <0.01 0.08 0.1

Signicance
** ** * **

Signicant. Very signicant.

Effect of discharge current on cutting velocity is visible in Fig. 5(d) which indicates increasing of this factor resulting higher cutting velocity due to transferring more thermal energy. Table 5 proves that the discharge current has a signicant effect on cutting velocity. According to graphical results of Fig. 5 and ANOVA results of Table 5, it can be inferred that wire feed and wire tension are insignicant in term of cutting velocity.

4.2.2. Analysis of surface roughness Effect of process parameters on surface roughness is visible in Fig. 6. Also, Table 6 presents ANOVA results to estimate of effect of each factor on surface roughness. According to Table 6 it can be inferred that pulse on time has greatest effect on surface roughness with contribution of 19.6%. Also the P-value of <0.01 indicates that this factor is really signicant. Moreover, Fig. 6 demonstrates that higher pulse on time leads to higher surface roughness due to transferring more thermal energy that induces deeper discharge craters on workpiece surface. As shown in Fig. 6, it can be inferred that higher pulse off time leads to lower surface roughness due to increasing non-cutting time. Moreover, Table 6 presents that the pulse off time is not as signicant as pulse on time due to its higher P-value (e.g. 0.045) and lower contribution (e.g. 1.95%). Gap set voltage is another factor that has inuence of 3.17% on surface roughness. Also, the P-value of this factor is <0.01that

proves it is signicant. Increasing in gap voltage resulting in higher electrostatic force and leads to winding of wire during discharge process. So, lower surface roughness is obtainable while gap voltage increases. Table 6 presents that discharge current is another signicant factor after pulse on time with contribution of 5.77% and P-value of <0.01. According to Fig. 6 it could be inferred that higher discharge current leads to coarser surface. By increasing discharge current more thermal energy transfers from wire to workpiece and deeper discharge carter are formed. Hence, poor surface quality exists while process works at high discharge current. Wire feed is another factor that has contribution of 2% and Pvalue of 0.05 on surface roughness. Fig. 6 depicts that increasing in wire feed has negative inuence on surface roughness. When wire feed increases the wire is recovered and renewed during process. So non-worn wire can increase spark efciency and produces deeper discharge crater. It is for this reason that higher wire feed resulting rougher surface. Both Fig. 6 and Table 6 prove that the wire tension does not have signicant effect on surface roughness due to its highest P-value and lowest percentage of contribution. 4.3. Modeling of cutting velocity and surface roughness using ANFIS In order to predict cutting velocity and surface roughness of the process and adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system has been

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Fig. 6. Effect of process parameters on surface roughness. Table 6 An ANOVA results to explore effects of process parameters on surface roughness. Factor Pulse on time Pulse off time Gap voltage Discharge current Wire feed Wire tension Total Error
* **

Degree of freedom 2 2 2 2 2 2 26 14

Sum of square 1.9385 0.092 0.3138 0.5712 0.1977 0.0042 3.1174

Mean of square 0.9692 0.0463 0.1569 0.2856 0.0988 0.0021

Contribution (%) 19.6 1.95 3.17 5.77 2 0.004

P-value <0.01 0.045 <0.01 <0.01 0.05 2.05

Signicance
** * ** ** *

Signicant. Very signicant. Table 7 Values of RMSE in testing of cutting velocity and surface roughness. Type of membership functions Triangular Trapezoid Generalized bell Gaussian RMSEs of cutting velocity 0.7985 0.9122 0.4563 0.5671 RSMEs of surface roughness 1.0234 1.412 0.3421 0.6112

employed for CV and SR separately. This technique crates a mapping relationship between process inputs and cutting velocity or surface roughness r. For this purpose a MATLAB R17 package (ANFIS toolbox) has been utilized. Prediction of cutting velocity and surface roughness of the process by ANIFS consists of two main stages, training and testing. Hence, number of 27 data sets which were cited in design matrix (Table 4), have been selected for training of ANFIS network. Then the trained network has been tested by other remaining 9 data sets which not contributed in training. Also, the ranges of inputs for these 9 data sets are beyond the ranges of training condition. There are some important factors which are contributed to produce an accurate prediction by ANFIS; they are type of fuzzy based rule, number of membership functions (MFs) and type of membership functions. In this paper a rst order TSK type fuzzy based rule was used for creation of predictive model. Then the various numbers of membership functions have been tried. In order to compare all existing networks and select most accurate one, the value of error goal (RMSE) was set 0.01 and the iteration number was 200 epochs. It means that the training epochs are continued until the RMSE fell below 0.01 or the epochs go up 200. As the RMSE criterion for all networks is the same, their actions are comparable. Then their testing performances were compared and the optimized model is selected based on its predictive accuracy in response to new input data in the testing phase when compared with experimental values.

The bold values refers to the lowest RMSE that means the most accurate prediction.

By testing of various structures of ANFIS model for each response (cutting velocity and surface), it was obtained that structures with numbers of 12 membership functions (2 MFs for each input or 22-2-2-2-2 topography) has the lowest values of RMSE. Selection of network with larger number of MFs leaded to over-tting and did not generate desired value of RMSE. Another factor which is inuential in accuracy of ANFIS model is type of membership functions. In this work various types of MFs namely triangular, trapezoid, generalized bell and Gaussian have been practiced. Table 7 presents RMSEs of ANFIS models in testing for cutting velocity and surface roughness. It could be seen from the table that four types of membership functions under 2-2-2-2-2-2 structure has been trained and their RMSEs were calculated. Results indicated that for both cutting velocity and surface roughness the generalized bell membership function leads to lowest values of RMSE. Table 8 presents the comparison of measured values of cutting velocity and surface roughness which were obtained through

R.K. Fard et al. / Journal of Manufacturing Processes 15 (2013) 483494 Table 8 Comparison between measured and predicted values of CV and SR for testing data. No Inputs with the ranges beyond training condition Ton (s) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 90 140 70 140 70 90 140 70 140 Toff (s) 70 30 90 70 70 30 70 30 90 VG (V) 80 10 100 100 80 100 10 80 100 Id (A) 50 250 50 250 250 50 50 250 50 WT (g) 2 16 2 16 14 2 16 2 14 WF (mm/min) 2 16 18 14 16 2 2 14 16 CV (mm/min) Measured 0.18 4.58 0.38 3.61 2.39 3.13 2.98 2.37 3.22 Predicted 0.1682 4.42 0.4000 3.7234 2.5247 2.9811 3.1011 2.3161 3.2918 Error (%) 6.56 3.49 5.26 3.05 5.44 4.79 4.03 2.27 2.17 SR (m) Measured 0.93 4.22 1.2 2.34 2.11 2.43 2.29 2.5 2.81 Predicted 1.0010 4.2513 1.1288 2.2987 2.1916 2.5122 2.2314 2.4679 2.7359

491

Error (%) 7 0.742 5.93 1.71 4.12 3.29 2.62 1.6 2.85

experiments, with predicted values of cutting velocity and surface roughness which were obtained through ANFIS model. It is seen from this table that although the ranges of inputs of testing data are beyond the ranges of training condition, but the ANFIS can predict the cutting velocity and surface roughness with an acceptable error. Also, Fig. 7(a) and (b) shows these results graphically for better understanding of agreement between measured and predicted values of CV and SR. It can be inferred from Table 7 and Fig. 7 that developed ANFIS models has superiority in prediction of CV and SR even in the ranges of inputs beyond predened ranges of training condition. 4.4. Response surface analysis of cutting velocity and surface roughness based on developed ANFIS models Here, response surface analysis of cutting velocity and surface roughness are presented using surfaces obtained through ANFIS models. These surfaces prove results obtained by experiments and show that the developed ANFIS models could predict cutting velocity and surface roughness as well. Fig. 8(a)(c) depicts ANFIS surfaces of cutting velocity for the interaction terms. Response surface of CV versus pulse on time and pulse off time is presented in Fig. 8(a). From this gure it can be seen that higher pulse on time and lower pulse off time combination resulting higher cutting velocity due to higher thermal energy which transfers from wire to workpiece. Also, Fig. 8(b) depicts surface of cutting velocity versus gap voltage and discharge

current. From the gure it can be seen that higher discharge current and lower gap voltage combination resulting higher cutting velocity due to higher thermal energy and non-winded wire situation. Moreover, Fig. 8(c) depicts cutting velocity versus wire feed and wire tension. The gure presents that both wire feed and wire tension are insignicant in term of cutting velocity. Variation of them has not great inuence on CV (just about 0.15 mm/min). Fig. 9(a)(c) depicts ANFIS surfaces of surface roughness for the interaction terms. Response surface of SR versus pulse on time and pulse off time is shown in Fig. 9(a). It could be found that lower pulse off time and higher pulse on time combination resulting lower surface roughness due to increase in non-cutting time which create shallower discharge crater. Also, surface roughness versus gap voltage and discharge current is visible in Fig. 9(b). It can be seen that higher gap voltage and lower discharge current combination produces smoother surface because of transferring lower thermal energy from wire to workpiece (because of lower discharge current) and winding condition of wire (because of winding condition of wire). Fig. 9(c) indicates surface roughness versus wire feed and wire tension. It can be seen from the gure that lower wire feed and lower wire tension combination resulting better surface nish. On one hand, increasing in wire feed can recover the wire during process and increases the spark efciency; therefore, it has negative inuence on surface quality. On the other hand increase in wire tension can prevent the wire to be wound and produce rigid sparks; thus, surface roughness increases while values of higher wire tension selected. According to above descriptions it can be inferred

Fig. 7. Comparison measured values of testing data trough experiments with predicted values through ANFIS for (a) CV and (b) SR.

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Fig. 8. (ac) Obtained surfaces of cutting velocity through ANFIS model. Fig. 9. (ac) Obtained surfaces of surface roughness through ANFIS model.

that lower wire tension and lower wire feed produces smoother surface. 4.5. Multi-characteristics optimization of process by ANFIS-ABC For simultaneous optimization of cutting velocity and surface roughness by articial bee colony algorithm the developed ANFIS models are used as objective functions. Hence, the following optimization function is used to convert the multi-objective problem to a single objective optimization problem F = W1 CV + W2 SR (4) SR = SR SRmin SRmax SRmin (6)

where CVmin and CVmax are the minimum and maximum values of MRR, respectively. Also SRmin and SRmax are the minimum and maximum values of SR, respectively.

Table 9 Setup parameters for implementation of ABC. Parameters X0 Np NEB NOB NSB MCN H(X) Value/function Li + rand(0,1) (Ui Li ) 20 50% of Np 50% of Np 1 1000 y = evals(x,net) H(X) = y(1) + y(2) Remark Equation used for initialization purpose Number of population (swarm size) Number of employed bees Number of onlooker bees Number of scout bees per cycle Maximum cycle number Objective function which uses evals to simulate the ANFIS network

where W1 and W2 are the weighing factor related to each response according to its importance in the process. As discussed in the present work 0.6 < W1 < 0.9 and 0.1 < W2 < 0.4 are considered due to dry WEDM process behavior. Also, the minus sign for cutting velocity is due to the fact that the cutting velocity must be maximized while the ABC has minimize nature. CV and SR are the normalized values of CV and SR which obtained by following equations: CV = CV CVmin CVmax CVmin (5)

R.K. Fard et al. / Journal of Manufacturing Processes 15 (2013) 483494 Table 10 Obtained optimal solutions through ANFIS-ABC for various weight factors. Weight W1 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 W2 0.4 0.3 0.2 0.1 Optimal factors Ton (s) 146 148 149.2 149.7 Toff (s) 33 32 31 30.4 VG (V) 15 14.2 13.5 13 Id (A) 245 247 249 249.8 WF (mm/min) 14 15 15.3 15.8 WT (g) 4 3.4 3 2.7 Responses CV (mm/min) 4.4315 4.6391 4.8876 4.9929

493

SR (m) 3.1931 3.5377 3.7201 3.8629

Table 11 Results of conrmatory experiments to validate optimal results which were obtained through ANFIS-ABC. Optimal factors Ton (s) 146 148 149 150 Toff (s) 33 32 31 30 VG (V) 15 14.2 13.5 13 Id (A) 245 247 249 250 WF (mm/min) 14 15 15 16 WT (g) 4 3.4 3 2.7 Responses CV (mm/min)Predicted/measured 4.4315/4.35 4.6391/4.73 4.8876/5.02 4.9929/5.18 SR (m)Predicted/measured 3.1931/3.15 3.5377/3.42 3.7201/3.65 3.8629/3.72

Pulse on time = from 50 to 150 s Pulse off time = from 30 to 90 s Gap voltage = from 10 to 100 V Discharge current = from 50 to 250 A Wire feed = from 2 to 16 mm/min Wire tension = from 2 to 16 g

Moreover the range of each factor for optimization can be dened as follow
(Available range on WEDM machine) (Available range on WEDM machine) (Available range on WEDM machine) (Available range on WEDM machine) (Available range on WEDM machine) (Available range on WEDM machine)

neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) was employed to crate mapping relationship between process inputs and main responses. At the end of the work, a multi-characteristic optimization was fullled to select optimal setting of factors by using of articial bee colony algorithm. A summary of obtained results is concluded as follow: From the exploratory experiments it could be found that oxygen gas and brass wire resulting higher cutting velocity, oxygen gas can create a chemical reaction and increases corrosion rate of workpiece. Also, the brass wire leads to increasing in spark efciency and electrostatic forces due to its higher specic resistance than the copper wire. From analysis of variances it could be found that pulse on time and discharge current are most signicant factors rather than the others. Also, wire tension appears the most insignicant factor based on its percentage of contribution. The ANFIS model could predict the cutting velocity and surface roughness as well due to low values of RMSE in testing. Also, based on obtained ANFIS surfaces it could be found combination of high pulse on time, low pulse off time, low gap voltage, high current resulting higher cutting velocity regardless wire feed and wire tension. Moreover, combination of low pulse on time, high pulse off time, high gap voltage, low discharge current, low wire feed and low wire tension leads to lower surface roughness. The optimal results which are obtained through ANFIS-ABC have been veried by conrmatory experiment to show the efciency of proposed method References
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The ABC algorithm needs to some setup parameters for implementation and nding global optima. Table 9 denes the main setup parameters for ABC algorithm. These parameters have not been selected stochastically, they were selected based on trial and errors on some benchmark functions such as Rastrigin and Rosenbrock. Table 10 presents obtained optimal solutions for various weight factors. It can be seen from this table that the optimal pulse on time is about 147150 s, the optimal pulse off time is about 3032 s, the optimal gap voltage is about 1012 V, the optimal current is about 247250 A, the optimal wire feed is about 1416 mm/min and the optimal wire tension is about 23 g. According to this table it is seen that by increasing W1 and decreasing W2 (weight factors of cutting velocity and surface roughness, respectively) the CV and SR also increase. This procedure seems logical because with major focus on CV, the ABC algorithm searches solutions for improving the CV. Hence, the higher pulse on time, lower pulse off time, lower voltage, and higher current are the results that cause to higher CV. Therefore, by selection of these factors the SR also increases. In order to verify the results of Table 10, conrmatory experiments have been performed and their results have been presented in Table 11. From this table, it can be inferred that the developed ANFIS-ABC is a potential method for solving modeling and optimization of dry WEDM process. It has also acceptable accuracy in nding optimal solutions. Therefore, the proposed method can be applied for modeling and optimization of other types of manufacturing processes. 5. Conclusion The present work consisted of experimental investigation, intelligent modeling and multi-characteristics optimization of dry WEDM process while machining of AlSiC metal matrix composite. Here, rstly a series of exploratory experiments has been conducted to nd appropriate gas and wire based on higher cutting velocity. Then numbers of 27 experiments were carried out based on Taguchi L27 orthogonal array to investigate effects of pulse on time, pulse off time, gap voltage, discharge current, wire tension and wire feed on cutting velocity and surface roughness. Afterward, an adaptive

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R.K. Fard et al. / Journal of Manufacturing Processes 15 (2013) 483494 tungsten carbide cobalt composite. International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology 2008;39:7484. Babajanzade-Roshan S, Behboodi-Jooibari M, Teimouri R, AsgharzadeAhmadi G, Falahati-Naghibi M, Sohrabpoor H. Optimization of friction stir welding process of AA7075 aluminum alloy to achieve desirable mechanical properties using ANFIS models and simulated annealing algorithm. International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology 2013, http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00170-013-5131-6. Samanta S, Chakraborty S. Parametric optimization of some non-traditional machining processes using articial bee colony algorithm. Engineering Applications of Articial Intelligence 2011;24:94657. Teimouri R, Baseri H. Improvement of dry EDM process characteristics using articial soft computing methodologies. Production Engineering Research and Development 2012, http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11740-012-0398-2. Teimouri R, Baseri H. Forward and backward predictions of the friction stir welding parameters using fuzzy-articial bee colony-imperialist competitive algorithm systems. Journal of Intelligent Manufacturing 2012, http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10845-013-0784-4. Karaboga D. An articial bee colony (ABC) algorithm for numeric function optimization. In: Proceedings of the IEEE swarm intelligence symposium. 2005. Teimouri R, Baseri H. Experimental study of rotary magnetic eld-assisted dry EDM with ultrasonic vibration of workpiece. International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology 2012, http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00170-012-4573-6.

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