Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2014) 74:781–790
DOI 10.1007/s00170-014-5940-2
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
A study of helical passageways applied to polygon holes
in abrasive flow machining
Kuan-Yu Chen & Ken-Chuan Cheng
Received: 10 January 2014 / Accepted: 8 May 2014 / Published online: 11 June 2014
# Springer-Verlag London 2014
Abstract The characteristics of abrasive flow machining
(AFM) make it a suitable method for complex holes and
curved surface machining. However, the conventional AFM
methods have difficulty achieving uniform roughness of radial
distribution in polishing of polygonal holes, because the radial
distance of polygonal holes is not symmetric, and the abrasive
forces are non-uniform in the corner edges. Therefore, abra-
sive machining of gels with helical passageways is proposed
to perform multiple paths of abrasive media, whose flowing
behaviour enhances polishing effectiveness by increasing the
abrasive surface area and radial shear forces. In this research,
an analytical model has been developed in order to understand
the behaviour of motion of the abrasive medium in different
passageways by utilizing CFD-ACE+ software; then, a series
of AFM experiments were utilized to verify the simulated
results. Numerical results revealed that the helical passage-
ways created interactive changes in the velocities in two axes,
inducing a multiple direction motion of the abrasive media.
Moreover, the percentage change of the strain rate deviation
could be reduced from 72 to 40 % when a square passageway
was replaced by a helical passageway. The small strain rate
deviation produces good uniformity of a polygonal hole in
AFM, and experimental results indicate that the helical pas-
sageways perform better than the polygonal passageways
during AFM in terms of efficiency. Additionally, helical pas-
sageways create polishing uniformity of the polygonal holes.
These results are in accordance with the simulated results.
Keywords Abrasive flow machining . Helical passageway .
Polygonal hole . Surface roughness
K.<Y. Chen (*) : K.<C. Cheng
Chung Yuan Christian University, Taoyuan, Taiwan, Republic of
China
e-mail: gychen@cycu.edu.tw
1 Introduction
In general, wire electrical discharge machining (WEDM) is
gaining wide acceptance for cutting out the holes of metal
components in punching or injection moulds. However, parts
of the surfaces are full of microcracks and craters due to
WEDM’s side effect of subsequent heat erosion, and these
defects lead to bad quality of the products’ surfaces. There-
fore, many approaches have been developed to reduce surface
roughness and increase the machining precision of surfaces.
Wang et al. [1] revealed that ultrasonic vibration lapping was
one of the non-traditional processes used to enhance the
machining precision of drilled micro-holes. In order to in-
crease the radial force which affects the penetration of abra-
sive particles into the workpiece surface, Walia et al. [2]
presented a mathematical model to calculate the number of
dynamics active abrasive particles participating in the
finishing operation process of centrifugal force-assisted abra-
sive flow machining (CFAAFM). The results of experiments
conducted to validate the analysis model showed a close
agreement. Wang and Lee [3] also developed a new hybrid
process termed as magneto-rheological abrasive flow
finishing (MR-AFF). Besides, Yan et al. [4] proposed a novel
combined process of EDM with ball burnish machining to
determine the surface modification of an Al–Zn–Mg alloy. In
doing so, the combined process could achieve a fine-finishing
surface. However, drawbacks may exist in the above methods,
such as either increased cost due to prolonged machining or
limited shapes to process.
Thus, a kind of simple, low-cost and highly effective
polishing method was developed. Abrasive flow machining
(AFM) is an effective means of deburring, finishing and
removing recasting layers by flowing abrasive medium over
parts of the surfaces. The polishing efficiency of AFM was
analyzed using machining parameters and rheological proper-
ties of the abrasive media. Jain et al. [5] demonstrated the
782
effectiveness of material removal and surface roughness by
modifying some parameters, such as a high number of ma-
chining cycles, high extrusion pressure, high abrasive concen-
tration, low abrasive grain size and a high viscosity of media.
Furthermore, different materials of silicone rubber were cho-
sen as the abrasive medium in order to investigate the AFM
effect on the surface. Wang and Weng [6] carried out the
experiment showing results of A-silicon with abrasive con-
centration 60 wt% that the surface roughness significantly
decreases from 1.8 μm Ra down to 0.28 μm Ra after five
machining cycles, and the approximately 84 % of the calcu-
lated percentage of improvement ratio presents an excellent
solution to reduce surface roughness. While most research
was of purely numerical analysis or used experimental
methods, a few studies effectively predicted polishing results
via tests and simulations during AFM. For example, Jain et al.
[7] used finite element method to estimate the material remov-
al rate and surface roughness. Moreover, Jain and Jain [8]
determined the active grain density on a medium’s surface by
stochastic simulation. This method could be easily extended to
simulate the surface generation during AFM.
Recently, a non-Newtonian flow has been employed to
establish the material properties of abrasive medium using a
power law equation. The CFD-ACE+ software is applied to
simulate the flowing motion of abrasive medium in AFM and
to analyze the polishing effects of different abrasive media in a
hole finishing process. Wang et al. [9] found that CFD numer-
ical method was aided to design the good passageways to find
the smooth roughness on the chain hole in AFM. The analyt-
ical results show that the distribution of strain rates and shear
forces is more uniform when a mechanism design of a mould
core with a chain shape is simulated. Wan et al. [10] also
developed a simple, zero-order semi-mechanistic approach
towards the analysis of the two-way flow abrasive flow ma-
chining process, stemming from a need to reduce the number
of time-consuming and labour-intensive experimental trials.
Additionally, Cheng et al. [11] developed a new concept
inserting the mould core into a machining hole to change the
passageway shape. In this investigation, the motion of the
abrasive medium is studied by utilizing different mould cores,
which mould shapes include the circular, hollow and helical
passageway. Experimental results show that roughness devia-
tion of six helices passageway of approximately 0.100 μm Ra
is significantly better than those on a circular passageway of
around 0.1760 μm Ra. Furthermore, Wang et al. [12] pro-
posed a novel mechanism with a helical passageway to per-
form multiple flowing paths of abrasive medium, whose
flowing behaviour enhances the polishing effectiveness by
increasing the abrasive surface area and radial shear forces.
The design of the helical passageway is an effective solution
to achieve surface roughness uniformity in the axial direction
in polishing a circular hole. Based on the above studies,
present work will apply an optimal mould core with a four-
Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2014) 74:781–790
helix core to polish different polygonal holes, which, with the
inclusion of square, hexagon and octagon holes, will be con-
ducted to verify the polishing effects of different passageways
in AFM. The behaviour of motion in multiple directions is
evaluated when the abrasive medium in the passageways
produces irregular variances in velocity and strain rate based
on analytical results. Additionally, the measurements of dif-
ferent passageways are implemented to demonstrate the in-
crease in the roughness improvement ratio (RIR) and rough-
ness uniformity for the AFM process.
2 Method
2.1 Material property
A rheological device is used to determine the curve of shear
rates relative to viscosities. Figure 1 shows the experimental
data between the viscosities and the shear rates of the abrasive
medium at a constant temperature of 27 °C. The result shows
that the viscosity decreases with the increase in shear rates.
This flowing behaviour of abrasive medium can be considered
as a non-Newtonian fluid and shear thinning fluid from a
macro perspective. Therefore, the power law is used to deter-
mine the relationships between viscosity and the shear rates.
Gabriella and Janos [13] discovered the mathematical expres-
sion of power law which is shown as Eq. (1) according to the
Ostwald–de Waele formulation, where n represents the power
law index and n<1 for the material of shear thinning fluid. In
some materials, viscosity also decreases with increasing tem-
perature. In ideal viscous materials, this phenomenon can be
described by the Arrhenius Eq. (2). Moreover, the function
considers the relationships among viscosity, shear rates and
temperature. The following mathematical Eq. (3) describes a
general model of the non-Newtonian power law to calculate
the fluid viscosity of the abrasive medium:
ðn−1Þ
μ ¼ Kγ̇ ð1Þ
 . 
B T
μ ¼ μ0 e ð2Þ
 . 
B T ðn−1Þ
μ ¼ Kμ0 e γ̇ ð3Þ
The MATLAB software is applied to calculate and fit the
power law curve. The material properties of viscosity coeffi-
cients can be calculated by the numerical method and are
 Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2014) 74:781–790
Table 1 Coefficient list for a power law
Matrix K μ0 B n
A-silicone 1 51,000 −0.002
listed in Table 1. Furthermore, the experimental data takes the
log of both x and y; it describes a family of straight lines.
Then, the MATLAB function of “polyfit” is used to find the
slope and intercept. Finally, Fig. 1 shows the curve fitting of
the power law; the results can verify the consistency of both
the experiment data and the MATLAB analytical curve.
2.2 Experimental procedure
In this study, silicon carbon (SiC) is chosen as the abrasive
material and uniformly mixed with silicone gel. The weight
concentration of the abrasive in the polymer gels is approxi-
mately 50 wt%, and the abrasive mesh of SiC is #100. In the
AFM process, a semi-solid polymer gel mixed in a typical
proportion of abrasives is extruded by two hydraulic cylinders
with a constant pressure to polish a workpiece surface. The
extrusion pressure of the hydraulic cylinder is 4.2 MPa, and
the back pressure is around 2.1 MPa in this process. Figure 2
shows a simple diagram of the AFM machining process. This
investigation focuses on the uniform roughness of a radial
distribution when polishing polygonal holes. The maximum
distance of a polygonal workpiece is 16.0 mm, and the axis
length is 30.0 mm. Next, the polishing effectiveness of differ-
ent passageways in a polygonal hole is evaluated by designing
different mould cores to study the motion of the abrasive
medium. Figure 3a shows the diagrams regarding the param-
eters of a helical core with a diameter of approximately
15.0 mm, and Fig. 3b displays a partial diagram of a helical
core example. The main design parameters of helical cores are
a 0.5-mm gap between the workpiece surface and the helical
edge, a 0.5-mm thickness of the helical slot and a one helical
turn. As the number of helical turns increases, the path length
of the helical motion per stroke also increases. Besides, the
10000
9000
Experiment Analysis
8000
Viscosity (Pa*S)
7000
6000
5000
4000
3000
2000
1000
0 matical formula describing the total force Fc of an abrasive
0 500 1000 1500
Strain Rate (1/S)
Fig. 1 Effect of shear rates on viscosities
783
0.379
Fig. 2 The machining process of AFM
angles of the helical passageway also change when the num-
ber of helical turns increases.
2.3 Internal helical motion
In the traditional AFM process of one-way cycling motion, an
abrasive medium reciprocates axially in the finishing region
due to applied extrusion pressure P. The motion of the medium
reciprocates at velocity Va and exerts axial force Fa on an
abrasive particle along the axial direction of the workpiece.
It demonstrates that the abrasive medium retains a unitary
axial motion. Besides, it also exerts radial force Fr on an
abrasive particle interacting with the workpiece due to the
viscoelastic nature of the abrasive medium. The depth of
penetration of abrasive particles in the surface of the work-
piece depends on Fr and the corresponding compressive
strength of the medium, extrusion pressure and grain size.
Then, the process of material removal is performed by the
radial force Fr acting on the surface of the workpiece, while
the axial force Fa removes the material in the form of micro-
chips. The diagram of the velocity and force components
during the AFM process is shown in Fig. 4.
In the present work, a novel mechanism with a helical
passageway is developed to perform multiple flowing paths
of abrasive medium by modifying the AFM set-up. In such a
case, the helical motion of the abrasive medium leads to an
axial velocity component Va and a new component of tangen-
tial velocity Vt. Relatively, an active abrasive particle in the
finishing region exerts an additional tangential force Ft along
the tangential direction of the workpiece other than the orig-
inal forces of axial force Fa and radial force Fr. The force and
velocity components of an AFM process with a helical pas-
sageway are illustrated in Fig. 5. Furthermore, the total force
Fc, the vector sum of Ft, Fa and Fr, is responsible for removing
the material in the form of microchips. The following mathe-
2000 particle as Eq. (4) has been calculated; resistance offered by
the workpiece for removal of material in the form of micro-
chips is expressed by Fs as Eq. (5), from which parameter τs is
784 Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2014) 74:781–790

Fig. 3 a Parameter definition of a

helical core and b a machined
four-helix core

Fig. 4 Diagram of the velocity

and force components during
AFM process

the shear strength of the workpiece material and A is the 3 Results and discussion
projected area of penetration. From a physical point of view,
the material is removed in the form of microchips if Fc >Fs, 3.1 Simulation results
and in some cases, it may take place if Fc =Fs; then, the
material removal just starts: This study has developed a numerical method to predict
the flowing behaviours of the abrasive medium in po-
qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi lygonal holes before a series of AFM-related experi-
Fc ¼ F 2r þ F a 2 þ F t 2 ð4Þ ments. Figure 6 shows the full modelling of a mesh
diagram of the abrasive medium with/without a helical
passageway. Simulation results for velocities and strain
rates of the abrasive medium are used to determine how
these different passageways affect the polishing preci-
Fs ¼ τ s  A ð5Þ sion during AFM.

Fig. 5 Diagram of the velocity

and force components in AFM
with a helical passageway
Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2014) 74:781–790 785

Fig. 6 CFD modelling diagrams

of the abrasive medium
with/without a helical core. a
Modelling of a polygonal
passageway and b modelling of a
helical passageway

Fig. 7 A cross section showing radial strain rates in a square hole with different helical cores. a Three-helix passageway, b four-helix passageway and c
five-helix passageway

3.1.1 Effect of different numbers of helical grooves
Helical grooves are the main parameter of the helical cores in
this research. Figure 7a shows the contour distributions of
radial strain rates in the square passageway with a three-
helix core. Results display that the upper and lower limits of
strain rates are widely distributed from 1,250 to 4001/s. Rel-
atively, Fig. 7b illustrates the contour distributions of radial
strain rates in a four-helix passageway; the limits of strain rates
are narrowly distributed from 750 to 4501/s. In addition,
Fig. 7c reveals a strain rate diagram in a five-helix passage-
way; the limits of the strain rates are also widely distributed
from 1,200 to 4501/s. This reveals that the flowing behaviour
of a four-helix passageway can achieve more uniform distri-
bution of strain rates than that of the three-helix passageway
and the five-helix passageway. The major cause is based on
the higher symmetry of flowing motion in the four-helix
passageway that guides the abrasive forces to more uniform
distribution in the corner edges. In general, the limit of strain
rates being a bigger deviation from peak to peak will deteri-
orate the uniformity of surface roughness. Therefore, an opti-
mal design of a four-helix core is obtained based on simulated
results.
3.1.2 Effects of helical passageway on a square hole
The subsection states the prediction motion of abrasive medi-
um with/without a helical core in polishing the square hole.
Figure 8a shows that the velocity curves of the square pas-
sageway without a core are at almost zero values for x- and y-
directions, and only the z-direction has a regular curve of
velocity. This demonstrates that the abrasive medium retains
a unitary axial motion. Next, Fig. 8b indicates that the velocity
curve is almost at zero for the x-direction only, while both y-

Fig. 8 The diagram of axial (a) (b)

velocities in a square passageway 1.5 0.5
with/without a helical core. a x Direction x Direction
Velocities of the square 0.4
Velocity (m/s)

y Direction
Velocity (m/s)

y Direction
passageway and b velocities of 1 z Direction z Direction
the helical passageway 0.3

0.2
0.5
0.1

0 0
0 1 2 3 0 1 2 3
Axis Length of Square Hole (cm) Axis Length of Square Hole (cm)
786
Fig. 9 The diagram of axial
strain rates in a square
Strain Rate (1/S)
passageway with/without a
helical core. a Strain rates of the
square passageway and b strain
rates of helical passageway
and z-directions have performed a regular curve of velocity.
This reveals that the motion of the abrasive media changes from
a unitary axial path to multiple axial paths by using the helical
passageway. Furthermore, Fig. 9a shows the axial curve dia-
gram of strain rates in the square passageway, and the upper and
lower limits of strain rates are widely distributed from 2,650 to
2,2501/s. Relatively, Fig. 9b shows the axial curve diagram of
strain rates in the helical passageway. The limits of the strain
rates are narrowly distributed from 690 to 5301/s. On the other
hand, the contour distributions of radial strain rates are given in
Fig. 10a and b. Figure 10a shows a wide range wherein the
upper and lower limits of the strain rates in the square passage-
way are distributed from around 2,5001/s on the edges to 7001/
s on the corner areas. In contrast, Fig. 10b shows the radial
curve diagram of strain rates in the helical passageway; the
limits of strain rates are narrowly distributed from 750 to 4501/
s, from which the percentage change in strain-rate deviation can
be reduced from 72 to 40 % of the abrasive media. This also
shows that the deviation of strain rates is distributed sharply on
the entire radial surface, and the helical passageway can im-
prove the deviation percentage of the strain rates for approxi-
mately 32 %. Therefore, the simulated results indeed indicate
that the helical passageway predicts the enhancement of uni-
formity precision of polishing.
3.1.3 Effects of helical passageway on hexagonal
and octagonal holes
Different passageways in hexagonal and octagonal holes are
tested to verify the polishing effects of the abrasive medium in
Fig. 10 The cross section of
radial strain rates in the square
hole with/without a helical core. a
Strain rates of the square
passageway and b strain rates of
the helical passageway
Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2014) 74:781–790
3000 3000
2500 2500 Four-helices Passageway
Strain Rate (1/S)
2000 2000
1500 1500
1000 1000
500 Square Passageway 500
0 0
0 1 2 3 0 1 2 3
Axis Length of Square Hole (cm) Axis Length of Square Hole (cm)
(a) (b)
AFM. The simulated results of the behaviour of motion for
axial velocities and strain rates are similar to the results for
the square passageway. Thus, this study focuses on the
improvement ratio of radial strain rates in a radial direction
for both hexagonal and octagonal passageways. Figure 11a
shows that a wide range of the upper and lower limits of
strain rates is distributed from around 2,500 1/s on the
edges to 1,500 1/s on the corner areas in the hexagonal
passageway. Relatively, Fig. 11b shows the radial
curve diagram of strain rates in the helical passageway;
the upper and lower limits of the strain rates are
narrowly distributed from 800 to 600 1/s in which the
percentage change in strain-rate deviation can be re-
duced from 40 to 25 % of the abrasive media. This
shows that the helical passageway can improve the
percentage of strain-rate deviation by about 15 %.
Similarly, Fig. 12a shows that the upper and lower
limits of the strain rates are widely distributed from
around 2,000 1/s on the edges to 1,300 1/s in the corner
areas in the octagonal passageway. However, Fig. 12b
shows the radial curve diagram of strain rates in the
helical passageway, and the limits of strain rates are
narrowly distributed from 700 to 500 1/s. Likewise, the
percentage change in strain-rate deviation can be re-
duced from 35 to 29 % of the abrasive media. The
improvement ratio of a helical passageway in an oc-
tagonal shape is only approximately 6 %. Therefore,
these simulation results also indicate that helical pas-
sageways can predict the improvement of the unifor-
mity precision of polishing.
Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2014) 74:781–790
Fig. 11 The cross section of
radial strain rates in the hexagonal
hole with/without a helical core. a
Strain rates of the hexagonal
passageway and b strain rates of
the helical passageway core
3.2 Experimental results
Batch samples of polygonal holes of SKD-11 steel were
cut out using the WEDM process, in which the average
surface roughness of the polygonal holes was approxi-
mately 1.8 μm Ra after machining, and then, polygonal
holes with different passageways could be finished by
AFM. Ten positions were picked during a series of
experiments in a section to evaluate the surface rough-
ness after AFM. The RIR is defined as the following
equation:
SRorigin −SRpolishing
RIR ¼
SRorigin
Where SRorigin represents the original surface roughness
before AFM and SRpolishing describes the surface roughness
after AFM polishing. Besides, the roughness uniformity is
used for a surface roughness deviation between the frontal
and middle side of the polygonal holes.
3.2.1 Effect of different numbers of helical grooves
In order to verify the simulated results in section 3.1.1, differ-
ent numbers of the helical grooves are applied in the square
passageways to proceed with the following experiments. The
measurement procedures of surface roughness are taken to
demonstrate the experimental results in RIR per five cycles
Fig. 12 The cross section of
radial strain rates in the octagonal
hole with/without a helical core. a
Strain rates of the octagonal
passageway and b strain rates of
the helical passageway
787
after the AFM process. Figure 13 presents the polishing
effects of the different numbers of helical grooves on surface
roughness for various alternating cycles. It illustrates that an
increase in the working cycles results in an obvious decrease
on the data sheet for surface roughness. This figure shows that
the RIR of three-helix grooves reaches 73.2 %; the RIR comes
to 76.6 % in four-helix grooves, and RIR of five-helix grooves
is 74.7 % after 20 machining cycles. According to the RIR
results, it reveals that the flowing behaviour of a four-helix
passageway can achieve more polishing effectiveness to re-
duce surface roughness than that of the three-helix passage-
way and the five-helix passageway.
ð6Þ
3.2.2 Effects of helical passageway on surface roughness
Figure 14 presents the effects of working cycles with
square passageways or helical passageways on the sur-
face roughness of square holes. This figure displays
that, regardless of what passageways are applied, the
surface roughness of square holes decreases with the
increase in the number of working cycles, but the heli-
cal passageway performs better than the square passage-
way during polishing in terms of efficiency. Additional-
ly, RIR can quickly reach 61 % utilizing a helical
passageway after five working cycles. However, a
square passageway can only obtain 46 % RIR within
the same cycles. This is owing to a helical passageway
creating multiple directional motions of the abrasive
788 Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2014) 74:781–790

2 2

Surface Roughness Ra (µm)

Surface Roughness Ra (µm)
Three-helix grooves
1.6 Four-helix grooves
Five-helix grooves
1.2
73.2%
0.8
74.7%
0.4
76.6%
0 0
0 5 10 15
No. of machining cycles
Fig. 13 Effects of working cycles with different helical grooves on
surface roughness of square holes
media allowing these abrasive media to effectively make
an uneven surface into a smooth surface. Figure 15
reveals the effects of working cycles with hexagonal
passageways or helical passageways on surface rough-
ness of hexagonal holes. Figure 16 shows the effects of
working cycles with octagonal passageways or helical
passageways on the surface roughness of an octagonal
hole. According to these figures, all the results are
similar to Fig. 14, i.e. surface roughness of hexagonal
holes and octagonal holes decreases with an increase in
the working cycles, and helical passageways produce
better surface roughness than hexagonal passageways
or octagonal passageways. Furthermore, helical passage-
ways in two different holes also create a high RIR at
the beginning of five working cycles, whereas the RIR
of the hexagonal hole rises to 70 % and the RIR of the
octagonal hole reaches 73 %. However, surface rough-
ness of the octagonal hole is better than that of the
other holes in the helical passageway, while the RIR
of the octagonal hole can be increased to 86 % after 20
Hexagon-- without core
1.6 Hexagon-- with four helices
1.2
53.9%
0.8
76.1%
0.4
70.0%
83.3%
0
5 10 15 20
20
No. of machining cycles
Fig. 15 Effects of working cycles with/without a helical passageway on
surface roughness of hexagonal holes
machining cycles. The reason is that the octagon hole is
much like a circular hole so it is easy to obtain the
smooth surface of this hole during AFM. The above
results demonstrate that a helical passageway in the
polygonal holes creates an ideal location for excellent
material removal and surface roughness. Only five
working cycles can create a high RIR in AFM.
3.2.3 Effects of helical passageway on uniformity of surface
roughness
In this investigation, surface roughness of the polygonal holes
in the front and the middle areas is implemented to verify the
uniformity of the hole surface by using a helical passageway
in AFM. Figure 17 shows the effects of passageways on
surface roughness of the different sections in the square hole.
According to the results, the surface roughness of the square
hole is almost the same in the middle and front sections when
the helical passageway is utilized in the machining process;
however, even after 20 working cycles, the surface roughness
of the square hole still indicates a deviation in both sections

2 2
Surface Roughness Ra (µm)

Surface Roughness Ra (µm)

Square-- without core Octagon-- without core

1.6 Square-- with four helices 1.6
Octagon-- with four helices

1.2 46.2% 1.2

69.4%
0.8 0.8
78.9%
0.4 0.4
60.9%
76.6% 72.7%
86.1%
0 0
0 5 10 15 20 0 5 10 15 20
No. of machining cycles No. of machining cycles
Fig. 14 Effects of working cycles with/without a helical passageway on Fig. 16 Effects of working cycles with/without a helical passageway on
surface roughness of square holes surface roughness of octagonal holes
Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2014) 74:781–790
2 2
Surface Roughness Ra (µm)
Frontal side-- without core
1.6 Middle side--without core
Frontal side-- with four helices
Middle side--with four helices
1.2
0.8
0.4
0 0
0 5 10 15
No. of machining cycles
(Square passageway)
Fig. 17 Effects of passageways on surface roughness of different sec-
tions in a square hole
when applying the square passageway in AFM. Thus, surface
roughness of the square hole is more uniform when a helical
passageway is utilized as a finishing parameter. Similarly, the
uniformity results of both hexagonal and octagonal holes
using different passageways are given in Figs. 18 and 19.
These results also reveal that regardless of what polygonal
holes are polished, surface roughness in the front and middle
sections is still the same in all working cycles during helical
passageways in AFM, but surface roughness in both sections
are not equal until the processes complete 10 or 15 working
cycles in the hexagonal or octagonal passageway. According
to these results, a helical passageway improves the uniformity
of a polygonal hole; the results are especially remarkable
when the square hole is polished with this passageway.
The above results demonstrate that the helical passageways
indeed produce multiple directional motions in AFM and
easily induce a uniform polishing effect. Additionally, exper-
imental results indicate that the polishing effects in different
passageways are consistent with simulated results.
2 locate to 60 or 70 % using helical passageways in AFM. In
Surface Roughness Ra (µm)
Frontal side-- without core
1.6 Middle side--without core
Frontal side-- with four helices
1.2 Middle side--with four helices
0.8
0.4
0
0 5 10 15
No. of machining Cycles
(Hexagon passageway)
Fig. 18 Effects of passageways on surface roughness of different sec-
tions of the hexagonal hole
789
Surface Roughness Ra (µm)
Frontal side-- without core
1.6 Middle side--without core
Frontal side-- with four helices
Middle side--with four helices
1.2
0.8
0.4
0
5 10 15 20
20
No. of machining Cycles
(Octagon passageway)
Fig. 19 Effects of passageways on surface roughness of different sec-
tions of the octagonal hole
4 Conclusions
Based on the foregoing discussions in investigating AFM
polishing in polygonal holes, the main conclusions are drawn
as follows:
First, CFD-ACE+ numerical software is a suitable and
effective simulation tool for demonstrating the optimum de-
sign of polygonal passageways with a four-helix core. The
results show that the velocities in three axes are changed
substantially to create the multiple motions of abrasive media
in the helical passageway. Additionally, polygonal passage-
ways create large deviations in the strain rates, and helical
passageways only produce small deviations in the strain rates
in the simulation. However, a big deviation in the strain rates
will deteriorate the uniformity of surface roughness.
Moreover, experimental results indicate that the polishing
effect on different passageways is consistent with simulated
results. This reveals that the helical passageways can perform
better than the polygonal passageways after polishing in terms
of efficiency, and after only five working cycles, RIR can
addition, surface roughness of polygonal holes is almost the
same in the front and middle sections using helical passage-
ways. However, even after 20 working cycles, the surface
roughness of the square hole still indicates a deviation in both
sections when applying the square passageway to the holes
polishing. Therefore, helical passageways not only induce
high performance in AFM but also improve the uniformity
of polygonal holes polishing.
20
References
1. Wang AC, Yan BH, Lee XT, Huang FY (2002) Use of micro
ultrasonic vibration lapping to enhance the precision of micro holes
790
drilled by micro electro-discharge machining. Int J Mach Tools
Manuf 42:915–923
2. Walia RS, Shan HS, Kumar P (2008) Determining dynamically
active abrasive particles in the media used in centrifugal force
assisted abrasive flow machining process. Int J Adv Manuf Technol
38(11–12):1157–1164
3. Wang AC, Lee SJ (2009) Study the characteristics of magnetic
finishing with gel abrasive. I J Mach Tools Manuf 1063–1069
4. Yan BH, Lin YC, Huang FY (2002) Surface modification of Al-Zn-
Mg alloy by combined electrical discharge machining with ball
burnish machining. Int J Mach Tools Manuf 42:925–934
5. Jain VK, Ranganatha C, Muralidhar K (2001) Evaluation of rheological
properties of medium for AFM process. Mach Sci Technol 5:151–170
6. Wang AC, Weng SH (2007) Developing the polymer abrasive gels in
AFM process. J Mater Process Technol 192–193:486–490
7. Jain RK, Jain VK, Dixit PM (1999) Modeling of material removal
and surface roughness in abrasive flow machining process. Int J
Mach Tools Manuf 39:1903–1923
Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2014) 74:781–790
8. Jain RK, Jain VK (2004) Stochastic simulation of active grain
density in abrasive flow machining. J Mater Process Technol
152:17–22
9. Wang AC, Tsai L, Liang KZ, Liu CH, Weng SH (2009) Uniform
surface polished method of complex holes in abrasive flow machin-
ing. T Nonferr Metal Soc 19:250–257
10. Wan S, Ang YJ, Sato T, Lim GC (2014) Process modeling and CFD
simulation of two-way abrasive flow machining. Int J Adv Manuf
Technol 71(5–8):1077–1086
11. Cheng KC, Chen KY, Wang AC, Lin YC (2010) Study the rheolog-
ical properties of abrasive gel with various passageways in abrasive
flow machining. Adv Mater Res 126–128:447–456
12. Wang AC, Chen KY, Cheng KC, Chiu HH (2011) Elucidating the
effects of helical passageway in abrasive flow machining. Adv Mater
Res 264–265:1862–1867
13. Bognar G, Kovacs J (2012) Non-isothermal steady flow of power-
law fluids between parallel plates. Int J Math Model M Appl Sci 1–6:
122–129