Simulation of thermo-mechanical behaviour of friction drilling process

Friction drilling is a novel technique for producing holes in thin sheet metal without plastic shear and material removal. In this process, no chip comes out, the displaced material in the region of hole thus made, forms a bushing by a conical friction drilling tool. During the process of producing holes in the sheet metal, severe plastic deformation of workpiece material occurs and eventually, the temperature distribution in tool and workpiece is very high. Hence, simulation of the process is necessary to predict the direction of material flow and high temperature distribution which are challenging to measure by experimentation alone. The objective of this work is to numerically analyse the pattern of bush formation in thin sheet metal of galvanised steel during the process and to predict the temperature distribution, axial force, and torque in the work piece. Validation shows high degree of agreement between the numerical results and experimental results.