High strength FGM cutting tools: finite element analysis on thermoelastic characteristics

In general, a metal cutting tool is composed of tip and shank of different materials, thus it exhibits crucial stress concentration near the material interface under thermomechanical loading while at work. Such an inherent defect is caused solely by the material composition discontinuity across two different material components, but it could be minimized by enforcing the material composition distribution be continuous. This would be achieved by inserting a graded layer between shank and tip, according to the concept of functionally graded material (FGM), in which the material composition varies continuously such that no discontinuity exists over the entire tool region. This paper intends to explore the possibility of FGM for improving the thermal strength of metal cutting tools, according to the parametric analysis by two-dimensional thermoelastic finite element method.