Model and Simulation on Centrifugal Barrel Finishing Based on 3D Discrete Element Method

The study on enclosed centrifugal barrel finishing has been staying at the experimental period for a long time. The design parameters and process parameters were fully determined by experiences without any theoretical basis. Considering the abrasive particles and workpieces as two kinds of ball particles with different materials and sizes, 3-dimensional discrete element method (DEM) was used to build the dynamics model. Based on such model, by setting different movement parameters, different movement laws and interaction forces of abrasive particles and workpieces were got. We analyzed the behavior of particles filled into a planetary barrel. In this paper, the influence of filling ratio of process parameters on medium movement was mainly analyzed. Then the transient movement diagram and the average contact forces diagram for abrasive particles or workpieces under different filling ratio were obtained. The simulation results are basically coincident to the experimental results. Both results have proved that filling ratio is the main parameter that changes medium motion laws, which provides a very efficient way to further optimize design parameters and process parameters, as well as to improve production efficiency.