ABSTRACT
White layer thickness (WLT) is considered to be one of the important surface integrity parameters in electrical discharge machining (EDM) process. This paper deals with the comparative investigation of WLT between experimental and empirical modeling methods. Initially, experimental evaluation of WLT is carried out using Taguchi design of an experiment by considering L9 orthogonal array, and later on, empirical modeling is carried out to determine the WLT by using Buckingham’s pie theorem. The result shows a close agreement between experimental (actual) and empirical modeling (predicted) of WLT. Also with respect to WLT, current seems to be the dominating EDM parameter as compared with other parameters. As the last part of the research, Jaya optimization technique is implemented, where the WLT was optimized with the use of optimum parameter settings. The result of Jaya algorithm shows that WLT is optimized up to 4.846 μm with the optimum parameter settings such as voltage of 55 V, current of 4 A, pulse-on time of 20 μs, and pulse-off time of 8.2 μs, respectively.
