Sustainability Assessment of Machining with Nano-Cutting Fluids

Abstract

Proposing nano-cutting fluids contributes to facing the heat dissipation challenge during machining difficult-to-cut materials since they offer a highly observed thermal conductivity value in comparison with the base lubricants. Thus, several nano-additives are employed to improve the cooling efficiency of Minimum Quantity Lubrication (MQL) system since its heat capacity is much lower than the one achieved using flood coolant. MQL-nano-fluid technique offers two main advantages; (a) enhancing the machining process performance as the employed nano-additives improve the thermal and frictional behavior, and (b) accomplishing a more sustainable process as the MQL systems applies an optimal amount of oil compared to the flood coolant strategy. In this study, a previous general assessment algorithm has been implemented to find the optimal and sustainable process parameters levels during machining Inconel 718 with MQL-nano-fluids. Multi-walled-carbon-nano-tubes (MWCNTs) and aluminum oxide (Al2O3) gamma nanoparticles have been utilized as nano-additives. The employed algorithm accommodates several machining responses, and sustainable metrics and indicators regardless of their criteria. It has been found that the assessment algorithm results were in agreement with the physical findings of the conducted experimental results.