Measurement of performance characteristics of WEDM while processing AZ31 Mg-alloy using Levy flight MOGWO for orthopedic application.

In the present work, AZ31 alloy is processed by WEDM process. The input machining variables of WEDM are designed according to Box-Behnken Design (BBD) of response surface methodology (RSM). The input machining variables considered in the present research are servo feed (SF), servo voltage (SV), pulse on-time (Ton), and pulse off-time (Toff), while the response characteristics evaluated in the present work are material removal rate (MRR), microhardness (MH), average surface roughness (Ra), and mean roughness depth (Rz). The analysis for each response is made with analysis of variance (ANOVA). The empirical models developed for each response are further utilized to get the Pareto fronts along various mutually conflicting process responses using improved multiobjective grey wolf optimization algorithm (MOGWO). In the present research, Levy flight algorithm has been used to improve the efficiency of MOGWO. It has been observed that the implemented multiple objective optimization approach is able to detect the uniformly distributed Pareto fronts very efficiently. The results obtained through the improved MOGWO are further validated through confirmation experiments which show a good agreement to the predicted results. The morphology of the machined surface is also evaluated using scanning electron microscopy, which depicts the microcracks, globules, micropores, and lumps. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]