Indian Journal of Science and Technology

Abstract

In this study, effect of multi wall carbon nanotubes with different volume fraction on surface roughness in Electro Discharge Machining (EDM) has been investigated. Multi-wall carbon nanotubes are added to the dielectric used in the EDM process to improve its performance when machining the AISI D2 tool steel, by means of copper electrodes. Design of the experiment was chosen as full-factorial. Statistical analysis has been done to experimental data and then appropriate model was extracted. The experimental results show that with dispersing of carbon nanotubes in dielectric with volume fraction of 0.1%, surface roughness decreased about 1µm and approximately 15 percent. Also by mixing carbon nanotubes in dielectric with volume fraction of 0.2%, surface roughness decreased about 1.4 µm and approximately 20 percent. These indicate the good performance of using carbon nanotubes in dielectric. *Author for correspondence Indian Journal of Science and Technology, Vol 7(5), 648–653, May 2014 ISSN (Print) : 0974-6846 ISSN (Online) : 0974-5645

Keywords: Electro Discharge Machining, Multi-wall Carbon Nanotubes, Surface Roughness, Volume Fraction