The International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology (2022) 120:3339–3351

https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-022-08987-7

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Experimental investigations on the influence of discharge current

waveform on processing characteristics and surface integrity
in electrical discharge machining
Guisen Wang1,2 · Fuzhu Han1,2 · Liang Zhu3

Received: 7 October 2021 / Accepted: 24 February 2022 / Published online: 3 March 2022
© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag London Ltd., part of Springer Nature 2022

Abstract
The discharge current waveform affects the processing characteristics and surface integrity by affecting the process of energy
input. At present, although the rectangular current waveform is widely used in electrical discharge machining (EDM), there
is not enough evidence to prove that it is the most suitable. Therefore, in this study, the influence of the discharge current
waveforms on processing characteristics and surface integrity was investigated and compared under similar pulse energy.
Three types of discharge current waveforms including rectangular (Rec), triangular (Tri), and trapezoidal (Tra) are used for
processing. The material removal amount, surface topography, roughness, phase compositions, white layer thickness, and
residual stress were investigated and analyzed. The results showed that Tri could remove the most materials per pulse-on
duration, followed by Tra. Compared with Rec, the size of craters and debris on the sample surface produced by the Tri and
Tra was larger. The surface roughness and residual stress of samples processed by Tri were the highest. When the discharge
current waveform was constant, XRD spectra of samples fabricated by EDM under different pulse energy were almost the
same. Compared with Rec, the diffraction peaks of samples produced by Tri and Tra were reduced. When the pulse energy
was low, the white layer of samples processed by Rec was thinner than that processed by Tri. This phenomenon was reversed
when the pulse energy was high. The white layer thickness of the sample fabricated by Tra was between the samples processed
by Rec and Tri regardless of pulse energy.

Keywords Electrical discharge machining · Discharge current waveform · Pulse energy · Processing characteristics ·
Surface integrity

1 Introduction and tool electrode materials. It is reported that the tempera-

Electrical discharge machining (EDM) is an important non-
traditional processing technology that removes material
through rapid and repetitive discharge between the material
to be processed and the tool electrode in the dielectric. In
the EDM process, most electrical energy is continuously
converted into heat energy to melt or vaporize the workpiece
* Fuzhu Han
hanfuzhu@mail.tsinghua.edu.cn
1
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Tsinghua
University, Beijing 100084, China
2
Beijing Key Lab of Precision/Ultra‑Precision Manufacturing
Equipment and Control, Tsinghua University,
Beijing 100084, China
3
Makino Asia China PTE. LTD, Kunshan 215300, China
ture at the discharge point can reach tens of thousands of
degrees [1–3]. Thus, EDM can process various conductive
materials without considering their hardness and strength
[4]. The machining gap between the workpiece material and
the tool electrode always exists, so there is no mechanical
force during EDM [5]. It is indicated that EDM can machine
the component and part with low stiffness. In addition, EDM
also has the advantages of high machining accuracy and low
cost [6]. In recent years, materials with special properties
(e.g., high melting point, hardness, and brittleness) have
been developed to meet the demands of extreme applica-
tions. Meanwhile, workpieces with various complex struc-
tures may need special process requirements. Therefore,
EDM is playing a more and more critical role in the manu-
facturing field. At present, it has been extensively used in
automobile, aerospace, surgical, and other industries [7].

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3340 The International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology (2022) 120:3339–3351
From the emergence of EDM to now, this technology has
been developed for nearly 80 years. Scholars from various
countries have carried out extensive research on EDM from
different aspects using experiments and simulation. Previous
studies showed that the physicochemical property of the work-
piece surface layer is different from matrix material due to the
instantaneous high temperature and the cooling effect [8–10].
The changing parts are often called the surface metamorphic
layer. The top of the surface metamorphic layer is the white
layer. In EDM, not all the molten materials are removed, leav-
ing a lot of molten material in the molten pool [11]. After
the discharge, they are cooled and re-solidified on the sur-
face to form the white layer. The white layer is a quenched
microstructure and heavily alloyed with the pyrolysis products
from the dielectric and the tool electrode [12]. Therefore, the
EDM surface exhibited good corrosion resistance and wear
resistance. Moreover, the hardness of the EDM surface is
generally higher than that of matrix material [10]. Despite
the presence of the white layer improving the performance
of the workpiece, the cracks and micro-voids in the white
layer decrease the fatigue life [4]. The researchers found that
the residual stress is tensile stress by testing the stress on the
sample surface after EDM [7, 13]. As we all know, the appli-
cation environment of EDM samples is relatively harsh, such
as high temperature, high stress, and high-fatigue-load condi-
tions. The superposition of working load and residual tensile
stress makes the crack easy to produce and accelerates the
crack growth. Therefore, the fatigue life of the EDM sample
decreases. Ghanem et al. found that the fatigue life of EDM
workpieces is reduced by 35% compared with milled work-
pieces [14]. The EDM processing characteristics determine
the production cycle of parts, and the surface characteristics
determine the performance and service life of the workpiece.
Therefore, the study of EDM processing characteristics and
surface properties is very important for improving the eco-
nomic efficiency of the enterprise. These have attracted great
attention from scholars.
Many factors are affecting the EDM machining characteris-
tics and surface integrity. Electrical parameters are one of the
most important factors affecting EDM. In general, material
removal rate (MRR), surface roughness, white layer thickness
Fig. 1  Discharge voltage wave-
forms corresponding to different
current waveforms: a triangular
current waveform and b trap-
ezoidal current waveforms
13
(WLT), and residual stress increased with the increase of
pulse-on time ­(ton) or peak current ­(Ip) due to the influence of
pulse energy [15–17]. However, when the ton is too long, the
surface roughness and MRR may decrease [18, 19]. Amorim
and Weingaertner found that as the ton increases, the MRR
increases up to a maximum value for a specific optimum
pulse-on time ­(top) [19]. When the ton further increases, the
material removal rate decreases. Surface roughness has a simi-
lar change trend. This phenomenon is related to the increase
of plasma channel diameter. The diameter of the plasma
channel increases with the increase of ton. The increase of the
plasma channel diameter decreases the pressure of the plasma
over the molten cavities. Consequently, the ejection of mate-
rial from the molten cavities reduced. This phenomenon may
lead to a decrease in surface roughness and MRR. As we all
know, the voltage between the workpiece and the electrode is
constant during EDM (Fig. 1). Therefore, the current wave-
form determined the discharge energy and its input process.
Ishikawa and Kunieda researched the influence of discharge
current waveform on the removal volume of the workpiece in
a single discharge [20]. The results showed that the removal
volume of the workpiece with the polarity of positive was
the largest when a linearly increased and sharply turned off
current was used with the pulse duration of 200 µs. Han et al.
compared the size of discharge craters fabricated by the short
ton and long ton under the condition of similar discharge energy
[21]. They found that the crater produced by the short ton and
long ton has a similar size when the discharge energy is high
enough. As the discharge energy decreases, the size of the
crater machined by the short ton is larger than that of the crater
produced by the long ton. Compared with long ton, the work-
piece surface processed by short ton has higher residual stress
when the discharge energy is almost the same [22].
Non-electrical parameters also have an important influ-
ence on EDM machining characteristics and surface integ-
rity. Adding an appropriate amount of conductive powder
particles to the dielectric can improve the MRR, reducing
surface roughness and WLT [23, 24]. Tzeng and Chen found
that adding Al powder to the dielectric can generate lower
surface roughness and the thinner white layer thickness com-
pared to adding Cr and SiC powders [23]. There are few or
The International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology (2022) 120:3339–3351
no cracks on the surface of the sample machined by powder
mixed EDM. The residual stress of workpieces processed in
water is higher than that of workpieces processed in kerosene
due to the difference in physicochemical properties [22]. Cu
and Gr are the most commonly used electrode materials in
EDM thanks to their excellent conductivity and corrosion
resistance. Previous studies showed that surface processed
with electrode Gr has a higher hardness and residual stress
than that processed with the Cu electrode [22, 25]. The pro-
portion of energy distributed between the workpiece and the
tool electrode is affected by the processing polarity [26, 27].
Generally speaking, when the workpiece is connected to the
cathode of the power supply, the MRR is higher. Meanwhile,
the electrode wear rate is also low. The white layer thickness
of the workpiece connected with the cathode is often lower
than that of the workpiece connected with the anode [28].
For traditional die-sinking EDM, non-electrical param-
eters are usually constant. Thus, people often change elec-
trical parameters to obtain different machined surfaces. The
effect of ton and Ip on processing characteristics and surface
integrity has been widely researched in the past years. How-
ever, these studies are based on rectangular current wave-
forms. In EDM, the discharge current waveform that deter-
mines the energy input process has an important influence
on machining characteristics as the discharge voltage is con-
stant after the dielectric is broken down (Fig. 1). Therefore,
it is a much effective method to improve working character-
istics by selecting appropriate discharge current waveform.
Up to now, there is not enough evidence to prove that what
discharge current waveform is the most adequate. There-
fore, it is necessary to investigate the influence of discharge
Fig. 2  EDM machine tool and
tool electrode
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current waveform on processing characteristics and surface
integrity. In this study, the effect of the rectangular, triangu-
lar, and trapezoidal current waveform on processing charac-
teristics, WLT, and residual stress was researched and com-
pared under similar pulse energy. Meanwhile, the difference
in surface topography, roughness, and chemical composition
was also analyzed. This paper aims to guide the development
and selection of EDM discharge current waveforms.
2 Experimental procedure
The EDM experiments were carried out on an industrial
machine tool (EDAF2, Fig. 2). Three types of discharge
current waveforms used in the research are shown in Fig. 3.
The processing parameters of the experimental setup are pre-
sented in Table 1. Figure 4 displays the corresponding dis-
charge current waveforms under different processing param-
eters. It should be emphasized that this figure only shows a
discharge current waveform. In this study, the STAVAX steel
was selected as workpiece material. Since the STAVAX steel
is widely used to produce die by EDM. The chemical com-
positions of STAVAX steel are shown in Table 2. The cop-
per rod with the size of ϕ10 mm × 110 mm was used as the
tool electrode. Table 3 exhibits the chemical compositions
of the copper electrode [29]. Before EDM, the workpieces
were stress relieved for ensuring stress-free conditions. The
dimension of the workpiece is 60 × 60 × 5 ­mm3.
The material removal rate is usually expressed by the
material removal quality per minute in EDM. It is commonly
used to evaluate processing speed. However, it cannot reflect
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3342 The International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology (2022) 120:3339–3351

Fig. 3  a Rectangular, b Trian-

gular, and c Trapezoidal current
waveforms

Table 1  EDM conditions Electrical parameters Rec1/Tri1/Tra1 Rec2/Tri2/Tra2 Rec3/Tri3/Tra3 Rec4/Tri4/Tra4

Pulse-on time (µs) 4/4/4 7/5/6 10/6/8 17/8/8

Pulse-off time (µs) 4.5/4.5/4.5 7/5/6 10/6/8 16/8/8
Discharge voltage (V) 22 22 22 22
Peak current (A) 5/10/6.7 5.43/15/8.5 5/18/8.5 5.78/21.5/15
Pulse energy (mJ) 0.44/0.44/0.44 0.84/0.83/0.84 1.17/1.19/1.22 1.91/1.89/1.88

Fig. 4  Different discharge cur-

rent waveforms in EDM

Table 2  Chemical compositions Element C Si Mn Cr V Fe

of STAVAX steel
Wt% 0.38 0.9 0.5 13.6 0.3 Balance

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The International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology (2022) 120:3339–3351
Table 3  Essential properties of copper electrode [30]
Essential properties Descriptions
Specific gravity (g/cm3) 8.94
Melting range (°C) 1065–1083
Thermal conductivity (W/m·K) 388
Specific heat (J/kg·K) 385
Thermal expansion coefficient (1/°C) 16.7 × ­10−6
Electrical resistivity (Ω·cm) 1.7 × ­10−6
how much material is removed under a single discharge.
Therefore, it cannot be used to compare the processing per-
formance under different pulse parameters. This is because
that the amounts of discharge energy and discharge fre-
quency affect the material removal. In this study, the amount
of material removal per pulse (MRP) was calculated in this
study. The mass of samples before and after processing is
weighed by electronic balance, respectively. Then, the effec-
tive processing time ­(te) is calculated. The MRP was equal
to the mass of removal material divided by the number of
processing pulses ­(te/ton).
To investigate the surface property of the EDM sample,
a part of the machined sample was cut by wire-EDM. Then,
they were ultrasonically cleaned in acetone, anhydrous etha-
nol, and deionized water, respectively. The two-dimensional
and three-dimensional morphologies were tested by the field
emission scanning electron microscope (SEM) and laser
scanning microscope (LSM), respectively. Surface rough-
ness was measured by a surface roughness profiler (JB-4C).
The crystalline phase was examined by X-ray diffraction
(XRD). The scan was performed in the range of 20 to 90°.
Optical microscopy was used to investigate the WLT. For
detailed test methods, please refer to the reference [7]. Fig-
ure 5 shows the measurement and calculation of white layer
thickness. Residual stress was tested by a portable X-ray
stress analyzer (µ-X360n, Fig. 6a). This instrument is based
on the cosα method to measure the residual stress (Fig. 6b).
There is no remarkable difference in test accuracy between
the cosα method and the sin2ψ method [30]. Compared with
the sin2ψ method, the cosα method can measure the residual
stress more easily.
3 Results and discussion
3.1 Processing characteristics
Figure 7 presents the effect of discharge current wave-
form on MRP. From this figure, we can find that the MRP
increases with the increase of discharge energy under the
same discharge current waveform. In other words, the
increase of current or pulse-on time would lead to the
3343
Fig. 5  Measurement process of white layer thickness
increase of MRP. However, it is worth noting that the
increase of pulse-on duration does not necessarily increase
the MRR. Although the increase of pulse-on duration
enhances the MRP due to the increase of pulse energy, the
number of discharge pulses per unit time decreases. For
example, Lee et al. found that too long pulse-on duration
can decrease the MRR [18]. When the discharge energy was
similar, the triangular current waveform had the highest
MRP. Compared with the rectangular current waveform, the
trapezoidal current waveform had a higher MRP. The result
showed that the MRP is not only related to the discharge
energy but also related to the discharge current waveform.
The discharge current waveform can influence the melt-
ing and removal of materials by affecting the input process
of pulse energy. It is reported that the amount of material
removed from the sample surface is related to the explo-
sive force produced by discharge [30]. The high Ip with
the short ton can generate a higher explosive force than the
low Ip with the long ton. Therefore, more molten materials
can be removed from the workpiece surface under the high
Ip with the short ton. In other words, discharge current has
a more significant effect on material removal than pulse-
on duration. To improve processing efficiency, people can
choose the processing method of the high Ip with the short
ton. In addition, the material removal efficiency can also
be improved by selecting the appropriate discharge cur-
rent waveform. For example, when the pulse-on duration
and discharge energy are the same, the triangular current
waveform has a higher MRP than the rectangular current
waveform.
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3344 The International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology (2022) 120:3339–3351
Fig. 6  a X-ray residual stress
analyzer (µ-X360n), b Debye–
Scherrer ring recorded on a
two-dimensional detector by a
single-exposure of X-rays
3.2 Surface topography
Figure 8 shows the surface topography of the sample pro-
duced by EDM under the discharge energy of 0.44 mJ. There
are many overlapping craters existed on the EDM surface.
This is because the discharge position is constantly chang-
ing during processing. In addition, surface defects were also
observed on the surface, including cracks, micro-voids, and
debris. The occurrence of cracks was caused by excessive
tensile stress that exceeded the tensile strength of the mate-
rial. In general, cracks initiate on the surface, extend down
towards the parent material, and end at the white layer with-
out entering the parent material. Independent cracks, as well
as interconnected cracks, were found on the EDM surface.
No obvious difference in surface cracks was observed among
the samples Rec1, Tri1, and Tra1. The formation of micro-
voids is attributed to the bubbles expelled from the molten
Fig. 7  The amounts of material removal per pulse-on duration under
different processing parameters
13
material during the solidification process [31]. As we all
know, part of the molten material would be removed from
the workpiece surface. However, there is still very little
removed material falling back to the surface. Consequently,
some debris appeared on the workpiece surface after EDM.
It can be found that the debris is usually spherical. The sur-
face produced by triangular current waveform and trapezoi-
dal current waveform has more and larger debris than that
processed by rectangular current waveform. It is most likely
that the triangular current waveform can generate a higher
explosive force during EDM. The size of the debris is related
to the volume of the molten material splashed. When the
explosion force is large, the volume and mass of splashed
material are also large. The large splashed material easily
falls back to the surface to form the large debris. Accord-
ingly, more and larger debris was observed on the surface
fabricated by triangular current waveform and trapezoidal
current waveform. The surface topography of samples fab-
ricated by EDM under the discharge energy of 1.9 mJ is
shown in Fig. 9. Apparently, when the current waveform
does not change, the surface of the sample is relatively rough
under high pulse energy. The more pulse energy, the more
molten and removal materials. Therefore, with the increase
of discharge energy, the dimension of discharge craters on
the surface became larger. Accordingly, the EDM surface
became rougher due to the increased pulse energy. Interest-
ingly, when the pulse-on duration is about 1.9 mJ, almost no
cracks can be observed on the surface processed by trian-
gular and trapezoidal current waveforms. Lee and Tai stud-
ied the relationship between surface cracks and processing
parameters, and they found that the surface crack density
increases with the pulse-on time when the discharge cur-
rent is constant [15]. However, the surface crack density
decreases as the pulse current increases if the pulse-on time
remains constant. Therefore, the sample surface processed
by the high current with short pulse-on time is not easy to
generate cracks. In our study, the processing parameters
Tri4 and Tra4 had a higher current and shorter pulse-on
The International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology (2022) 120:3339–3351
Fig. 8  SEM images of EDM
sample: a, b Rec1, c, d Tri1,
and e, f Tra1
time compared with the processing parameter Rec4. Con-
sequently, almost no cracks were observed on the samples
Tri4 and Tra 4. There is no explicit relationship between
discharge energy and surface cracks. In other words, it is
unreasonable to determine the amount of surface crack only
by the discharge energy.
To better compare the difference of surface topography
processed by different discharge current waveforms under the
similar pulse energy, three-dimensional topography of differ-
ent surfaces was measured by LSM, and the result is displayed
in Fig. 10. From this figure, it is easy to observe the differ-
ence in surface morphology. Obviously, the sample machined
by triangular current waveform was the roughest. Compared
with low discharge energy, the surface produced at high dis-
charge energy was rougher. The results were consistent with
the above results. Based on these results, we can conclude that
3345
the discharge current waveform and pulse energy determine
the surface topography under other invariable conditions.
3.3 Surface roughness
Surface roughness plays an important role in improving
the service life and reliability of mechanical products. It is
essential to investigate the roughness of the workpiece sur-
face after EDM. Figure 11 exhibited the test result of surface
roughness for different samples. When the pulse energy was
similar, the surface roughness of the sample produced by
the triangular current waveform was the highest. Compared
with rectangular current waveform, the surface roughness
of the sample fabricated by trapezoidal current waveform
was higher. These results were consistent with the surface
topography. Discharge current waveform affects the removal
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3346 The International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology (2022) 120:3339–3351
Fig. 9  SEM images of EDM
sample: a, b Rec4, c, d Tri4,
and e, f Tra4
amount of materials per pulse by affecting the energy input
process. The triangular and trapezoidal current waveform
has a higher MRP than the rectangular current waveform.
Therefore, their surface roughness was also higher. For a
certain discharge current waveform, surface roughness
increased with the increase of pulse energy. Higher pulse
energy results in more material being removed (Fig. 7).
Therefore, the morphology and size of craters change sig-
nificantly. The size of craters became large under the high
pulse energy, and thus, the surface roughness is high. The
pulse energy is determined by the pulse-on time and dis-
charge current. In this study, the peak current did not change
much for the rectangular current waveform. The increase
of energy is almost realized by increasing pulse-on dura-
tion. Previous studies reported that the surface roughness
decreased when the pulse-on duration was too long [18]. It
is indicated that the combination of pulse-on duration and
13
peak current also has an important influence on the surface
roughness. When the discharge energy is almost the same,
the surface roughness of the sample produced by the high
current with the short ton is rougher than that of the sample
processed by the low current with the long ton [32]. In this
study, as the pulse-on duration increased, the surface rough-
ness did not decrease, implying the pulse-on duration used
in the research did not exceed a special pulse-on time that
reduces the surface roughness. A previous study reported
that the surface roughness is the same when the pulse energy
is the same in wire-EDM [21]. However, our study showed
that the surface roughness of the sample machined by differ-
ent current waveforms is different. The different results are
attributed to the differences between die-sinking EDM and
wire-EDM. For die-sinking EDM, even if the pulse energy
is the same, the surface roughness of samples processed by
different discharge current waveforms is also different.
The International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology (2022) 120:3339–3351 3347

Fig. 10  Three-dimensional topography of different samples fabricated by EDM

3.4 Phase composition certain discharge current waveform, the diffraction peaks of

The influence of discharge energy and current waveform on
the phase composition is shown in Fig. 12. Compared with
the original material (Fig. 13), the phase composition of the
EDM sample changed obviously. In addition to α-Fe, the new
diffraction peaks of γ-Fe and cementite appeared after EDM.
During EDM, kerosene is cracked and produces carbon due
to the action of high temperature, whereby carbon will fuse
with the molten metal material. After discharge, a series of
phase transformations happened in the molten metal and its
surrounding zone. Therefore, γ-Fe and cementite appeared
on the surface of the EDM sample. Meanwhile, the content
of carbon on the EDM surface was higher compared to the
original material due to the influence of carburizing. For a
EDM samples were not significantly different. Therefore,
the discharge energy on XRD spectra was not significant in
our study. Compared with the rectangular current waveform,
the diffraction peaks of samples produced by trapezoidal
and triangular current waveform were reduced. The reduced
diffraction peak was cementite. It is indicated that discharge
current waveform can affect the proportion of each crystal
phase component. The composition and proportion of metal-
lographic structure have an important influence on surface
characteristics. Thus, there may be some differences between
the surface characteristics of samples processed by different
current waveforms. The results indicated that discharge cur-
rent waveform also affects the XRD spectra. The difference
in the diffraction peaks may be attributed to the difference

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3348 The International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology (2022) 120:3339–3351
Fig. 11  Surface roughness of EDM samples
in the heating and cooling process caused by different cur-
rent waveforms.
3.5 White layer
Figure 14 presents the white layer thickness of different sam-
ples. When the discharge current waveform did not change,
the WLT increased as the discharge energy increased. The
white layer thickness depends on the amount of remaining
molten materials on the workpiece surface. It is well-known
that the heat transferred to the workpiece surface increased
Fig. 12  XRD spectra of samples processed by EDM under different
current waveforms
13
Fig. 13  XRD spectra of the original material
with the increase of pulse energy. Thus, more materials were
molten at the discharge point. In EDM, only a small amount
of molten materials were removed from the workpiece sur-
face. Although the MRP also increased with the increase of
pulse energy, the remaining molten materials still increased.
Consequently, the white layer thickness increased. The white
layer thickness of TraX (X = 1, 2, 3, 4) was between TriX and
RecX regardless of pulse energy. When the discharge energy
is low (about 0.44 mJ), the white layer of samples produced
by the triangular current waveform and the trapezoidal cur-
rent waveform was thicker than that of samples fabricated
by the rectangular current waveform. However, compared
with the rectangular current waveform, the white layer of
Fig. 14  The white layer thickness of samples produced by different
discharge current waveforms
The International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology (2022) 120:3339–3351
samples produced by the triangular current waveform and
the trapezoidal current waveform was thinner under the con-
dition of high discharge energy. In Sect. 3.1, it is obvious
that the RecX has the lowest MRP. Therefore, we can infer
that the amount of molten material produced by the triangu-
lar current waveform and the trapezoidal current waveform
was more than that of molten materials produced by the
rectangular current waveform. Although the triangular cur-
rent waveform and trapezoidal current waveform have higher
MRP, the amount of remaining molten on the Tri1 and Tra1
surface was still more. Therefore, the white layer of Tri1
and Tra1 was thicker than that of Rec1. With the increase of
pulse energy, the difference in the amount of molten material
becomes smaller. The lower MRP for rectangular current
waveform leads to more molten materials remaining on the
surface. Accordingly, when the discharge energy is high,
the white layer of samples processed by a rectangular cur-
rent waveform is thicker. These results demonstrated that the
pulse energy and pulse current waveform have an important
influence on the white layer thickness. The current wave-
form determines the input process of energy. Therefore, new
discharge current waveforms can be developed to achieve a
desired white layer thickness by varying the energy input
process.
3.6 Residual stress
Figure 15 presented the residual stress of the EDM sample
by applying different discharge current waveforms. Like
the surface roughness and the WLT, the residual stress also
increased with the increase of discharge energy. In EDM,
the temperature gradient was one of the important factors
affecting residual stress, which affects the expansion/shrink-
age of materials in the stage of heating/cooling [16]. As the
Fig. 15  Residual stress of EDM samples
3349
discharge energy increases, more heat is transferred to the
workpiece, and thus, the temperature gradient increases. The
higher the temperature gradient, the higher induce thermal
stress. Therefore, the residual stress increases as the dis-
charge energy increase. When the discharge energy is simi-
lar, the residual stress of TriX (X = 1, 2, 3, 4) is the highest,
while the residual stress of RecX is the lowest. Compared
with the rectangular current waveform, the peak current of
the triangular current waveform and the trapezoidal current
waveform is higher. Tang and Yang found that peak current
has a more important effect on pulse-on duration [16]. The
peak current has a very great contribution to the heat flux,
which affects the temperature gradient of material and the
residual stress correspondingly. Han et al. found that the
triangular current waveform can cause a higher temperature
at the discharge point compared to the rectangular current
waveform [21]. Therefore, the sample processed by the tri-
angular current waveform has the highest residual stress due
to the higher peak current.
4 Conclusion
The paper has studied the influence of discharge current
waveform on processing characteristics and surface integ-
rity under the condition of similar discharge energy. Three
types of discharge current waveforms (rectangular, triangu-
lar, and trapezoidal current waveform) are used. After EDM,
the material removal amount, surface topography, surface
roughness, phase composition, white layer thickness, and
residual stress were measured and compared. The results are
summarized as follows:
1) Compared with rectangular current waveform, the trian-
gular and trapezoidal current waveform has higher MRP
due to the high peak current. When the discharge cur-
rent waveform is constant, the MRP, surface roughness,
WLT, and residual stress increase as the pulse energy
increase.
2) The surface produced by triangular current waveform
and trapezoidal current waveform has more and larger
debris than that processed by rectangular current wave-
form. The surface roughness of the sample produced by
the triangular current waveform is the highest, followed
by the trapezoidal current waveform.
3) XRD spectra of samples processed by EDM under the
same current waveform are also similar. The phase com-
positions of the EDM sample are composed of α-Fe,
γ-Fe, and cementite. Compared with rectangular cur-
rent waveform, the diffraction peaks of samples pro-
duced by trapezoidal and triangular current waveform
decreased. There is no significant difference in XRD
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3350 The International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology (2022) 120:3339–3351
spectra between the samples fabricated by trapezoidal
and triangular current waveform.
4) When the discharge energy is about 0.44 mJ, the white
layer thickness produced by the triangular and the trap-
ezoidal current waveforms was higher than that of the
rectangular current waveform. This phenomenon is
reversed when the pulse energy is high. The white layer
thickness of the sample fabricated by trapezoidal cur-
rent waveform was between the samples processed by
rectangular and triangular current waveform regardless
of pulse energy.
5) The residual stress of the EDM sample increased with
the increase of discharge energy under the condition of
the same discharge current waveform. When the dis-
charge energy is similar, the residual stress of the sam-
ple processed by the triangular current waveform is the
highest.
Author contribution Guisen Wang: conceptualization, methodology,
experiment, validation, formal analysis, investigation, data curation,
writing—original draft preparation, writing—review and editing;
Fuzhu Han: supervision, project administration, funding acquisition.
Liang Zhu: conceptualization, formal analysis, supervision.
Funding The authors would like to acknowledge the National Key Foun-
dation of China (61409230307) and the National Key R&D Program
of China (2018YFB1105900).
Availability of data and materials All the data and materials of this
work are available to the readers, according to the magazine policies.
Declarations
Ethical approval The authors claim that there are no ethical issues
involved in this research.
Consent to participate All the authors consent to participate in this
research and contribute to the research.
Consent to publish All the authors consent to publish the research.
There are no potential copyright/plagiarism issues involved in this
research.
Competing interests The authors declare no competing interests.
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