Design, fabrication and performance evaluation of pulsating heat pipe assisted tool holder

Abstract Pulsating heat pipe is a kind of highly efficient heat conductor in which the latent heat of evaporation is used to transport great amounts of heat in the presence of only small differences in temperature. The pulsating heat pipe assisted tool holder was designed and fabricated. Dry turning of Ti-6Al-4V alloy was carried out with the pulsating heat pipe assisted tool holder as well as the conventional one for comparison. FEM simulations were also carried out to investigate the influence of the pulsating heat pipe assisted cooling on the cutting performance. Results show that the highest cutting temperatures of the PHP assisted tool holder could be reduced by 10 % as so compared to that of the conventional one. The pulsating heat pipe assisted cooling can also reduce the wear of the cutting tools and improve their lives by 20∼30 %. The FEM simulations show a good agreement with the cutting experiment, as a result, validate the potential value of the pulsating heat pipe assisted cooling in dry cutting operations.