Estimation of a Moving Heat Source due to a Micromilling Process Using the Modified TFBGF Technique

Moving heat sources are present in numerous engineering problems as welding and machining processes, heat treatment, or biological heating. In all these cases, the heat input identification represents an important factor in the optimization of the process. The aim of this study is to investigate the heat flux delivered to a workpiece during a micromilling process. The temperature measurements were obtained using a thermocouple at an accessible region of the workpiece surface while micromilling a small channel. The analytical solution is calculated from a 3D transient heat conduction model with a moving heat source, called direct problem. The estimation of the moving heat source uses the Transfer Function Based on Green’s Function Method. This method is based on Green’s function and the equivalence between thermal and dynamic systems. The technique is simple without iterative processes and extremely fast. From the temperature on accessible regions it is possible to estimate the heat flux by an inverse procedure of the Fast Fourier Transform. A test of micromilling of 6365 aluminium alloy was made and the heat delivered to the workpiece was estimated. The estimation of the heat without use of optimization technique is the great advantage of the technique proposed.