Journal of Materials Processing Technology 148 (2004) 259–268

Tool nose radius effects on finish hard turning

Y. Kevin Chou∗ , Hui Song
Mechanical Engineering Department, The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL, USA
Received 17 April 2002; received in revised form 17 April 2002; accepted 30 October 2003

Abstract

Tool nose radius effects on finish turning of hardened AISI 52100 steels have been investigated. Surface finish, tool wear, cutting forces,
and, particularly, white layer (phase transformation structures) were evaluated at different machining conditions. Results show that large
tool nose radii only give finer surface finish, but comparable tool wear compared to small nose radius tools. Specific cutting energy slightly
increases with tool nose radius. For new tools, white layers only occur at aggressive feeds (=0.3 mm/rev) and small nose radius results in
deeper white layers. For worn tools, white layers appear even at mild feeds (0.05 mm/rev), but in contrast, large nose radius leaves deeper
white layers. Smaller tool nose radius gives larger uncut chip thickness, and thus, greater shear plane heat source that may induce deeper
white layers for new tool conditions. For worn tools, where the wear-land sliding is the major heat source, temperature analysis at machined
surfaces reveals that the larger the tool nose radius, the deeper the temperature penetration due to a shorter transition-material zone from
the cutting edge to the final machined surface.
© 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Hard turning; Surface finish; Tool nose radius; Tool wear; White layer

1. Introduction creases with nose radius, however, reaches a constant at nose

Hard turning, or turning of hardened steels, has been an
attractive alternative to costly, yet environmentally harmful,
grinding processes. Potential process benefits of hard turn-
ing over grinding have been reported including short cycle
time, process flexibility, part longevity, and less environ-
mental impact [1]. Scientific and engineering issues of hard
turning, been frequently investigated, range from cutting me-
chanics [2,3], tool wear [4,5], surface integrity [6,7], to part
accuracy [8]. It has also been indicated that hard turning is
sensitive to process parameters, narrow applicable machin-
ing parameters [7]. Cutting tool geometry is one of critical
process parameters in hard turning, especially edge prepa-
ration (chamfer or hone) [9] because of low feed and light
cut employed in hard turning. It has been shown that large
hone radii result in deeper subsurface structural changes due
to high plowing forces [9].
Surprisingly, tool nose radius, one of tool geometry pa-
rameters, has not been systematically investigated, probably
due to its intuitive effects on part surface finish; the larger
the tool nose radius, the finer the surface finish. Shintani and
Fujimura [10] reported that tool life based on flank wear in-
∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +1-205-348-0044/6419;
fax: +1-205-348-0044/6419.
E-mail address: kchou@coe.eng.ua.edu (Y.K. Chou).
radius greater than 0.4 mm. On the other hand, tool life based
on surface finish shows a local maximum at 0.8 mm nose
radius. It was suggested that large nose radii result in severe
groove wear, and therefore, poor surface finish. Other than
surface finish aspects, tool nose radius also affects uncut chip
geometry, and thus, ratio of uncut chip thickness to edge ra-
dius that may affect plowing forces in the hard turning pro-
cess. More interestingly, the distance from the cutting edge
to the nominal machined surface changes across the cutting
edge and is a strong function of tool nose radius (Fig. 1).
This variable may also affect white layer (phase transforma-
tion structure) depths as indicated in a previous study [6].
A set of experiments was designed to investigate tool
nose radius effects in finish hard turning. Ceramic inserts
with tool nose radii ranged from 0.8 to 2.4 mm were tested.
Outside diameter turning of 61 HRc AISI 52100 steel bars
with different machining conditions was conducted on a pre-
cision lathe. Part surface finish and tool flank wear were
recorded periodically by stylus profilometry and optical mi-
croscopy. A triaxial force transducer was used to measure
cutting forces during machining. White layer formation at
hard turned surfaces was also examined. Uncut chip geom-
etry was analytically computed as a function of feed rate,
depth of cut, and tool nose radius. Temperature rise at ma-
chined surfaces solely due to wear-land rubbing was evalu-
ated by a moving source of heat approach.

0924-0136/$ – see front matter © 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.jmatprotec.2003.10.029
260 Y.K. Chou, H. Song / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 148 (2004) 259–268
Fig. 1. Local view of tool nose area showing uncut chip thickness (h)
and the distance (g) from the cutting edge to the final machined surface.
2. Experimental details
Tool material used was alumina, titanium-carbide
composite (70% Al2 O3 and 30% TiC). Cutting tools
were 12.7 mm square type inserts with 4.8 mm thickness
(SNG43x-T, x = 2, 3, or 4). Nominal chamfered edge is
20◦ ×0.1 mm and 0.013 mm edge radius. Combined with the
tool holder used, cutting geometry was −25◦ rake angle, 5◦
relief angle, 15◦ for both side and end cutting edge angles.
Tool nose radii (r) tested included 0.8, 1.6, and 2.4 mm.
Workpiece material was AISI 52100 steel (1% C, 1.45%
Cr) hardened and tempered to 60–62 HRc. Workpieces were
28.6 mm solid round bars with about 150 mm length; over-
hang during machining was kept less than 60 mm. Outside
diameter turning was performed on a precision lathe. Ma-
chining parameters ranged from 2 to 3 m/s of cutting speed
(V), 0.05–0.6 mm/rev feed rate (f), 0.2 mm depth of cut (d),
and 0–0.2 mm flank wear (VB). No cutting fluid was used
in machining.
The tool holder was mounted on a triaxial piezoelectric
force sensor, which was mounted on the turret faceplate of
the lathe. The dynamometer together with a data acquisi-
tion system was used to measure three components of cut-
Fig. 2. Tangential force component at different nose radii and feed rates: V = 2 m/s, VB = 0 mm.
ting forces, i.e., tangential (Ft ), radial (Fr ), and axial (Fa )
forces. Surface roughness values (Ra , Rt ) of hard turned sur-
faces were measured by stylus profilometry and tool flank
wear-land width (VB) by optical microscopy. Steel surfaces
turned at various wear-land sizes and different nose radii
were prepared for metallurgical examination by a method
used before [6]. White layer depths from different machin-
ing conditions were also measured by optical microscopy.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Surface finish and tool wear
As predicted theoretically, surface roughness decreases
with increasing nose radius. It is also noticed that depar-
ture from the theoretical prediction (Rth = f 2 /8r) tend to
be significant at low feed rates. This, presumably, is due
to plowing actions caused by smaller uncut chip thickness.
In addition, surface finish generally degrades with cutting
time due to tool wear development. Large nose radius tools
have, along the whole cutting period, slightly better surface
finish than small nose radius tools. Tool wear development
with cutting time shows, after high initial wear rate, flank
wear-land width (VB) increases in a linear behavior. It is ob-
served that tool nose radii in the range of 0.8–2.4 mm seem
to have no effect on tool wear process, showing comparable
wear rate and similar tool life. Surface finish and tool wear
results are detailed in [12].
3.2. Cutting forces and energy
Fig. 2 shows tangential cutting force (Ft ) of different nose
radius tools at different feeds at beginning of the cut (VB =
0). Tangential force seems to increase slightly with nose ra-
 Y.K. Chou, H. Song / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 148 (2004) 259–268 261

Fig. 3. Specific cutting energy at different nose radii and feed rates: V = 2 m/s, VB = 0 mm.

dius. Other two components, i.e., radial and axial forces,
show similar trend as of the tangential force. Fig. 3 shows
specific cutting energy, u = Ft /Auc (Auc is the uncut chip
area), as a function of tool nose radius. Specific cutting en-
ergy decreases with increasing of feed rate, while increases
with nose radius proportionally. Uncut chip area in finish
turning is related to feed rate, depth of cut, and tool nose
radius by the following equation [11]:


fr −1 f
Auc = fd − + sin r2 . (1)
2 2r
On the other hand, maximum uncut chip thickness (hmax in
Fig. 1) can be formulated as below [11]
 
hmax = r − r2 + f 2 − 2f 2rd − d 2 . (2)
Uncut chip area is nearly constant to nose radius in the test
range, except that at large feed rate (0.6 mm/rev), uncut chip
area shows slight decrease with tool nose radius [12]. On the
other hand, maximum uncut chip thickness decreases with
increase of nose radius [12]. Thus, slight specific cutting
energy increase with nose radius may be due to smaller uncut
chip thickness that may augment plowing effects. Despite a
higher specific cutting energy, large nose radius tools result
in similar wear behavior as small nose radius tools.
Fig. 4 shows tangential cutting force increase with tool
wear at different nose radii. Tangential cutting force seems to
increase with tool nose radius in a linear manner at different
levels of tool wear. Fig. 5 plots specific cutting energy of
worn tools with different nose radii and the results, showing
again a linear trend. It is also noticed that wear-land effects
on specific cutting energy are significant.
3.3. White layer formation
Fig. 6 shows a typical white layer formation on a
hard turned surface by a new tool at high feed rate,

Fig. 4. Tangential force increase with tool wear at different nose radii: V = 3 m/s, f = 0.05 mm/rev.
262 Y.K. Chou, H. Song / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 148 (2004) 259–268

Fig. 5. Specific cutting energy increase with tool wear at different nose radii: V = 3 m/s, f = 0.05 mm/rev.

f = 0.45 mm/rev. No distinct white layer is observed for

Fig. 6. Typical white layer formation (note that the vertical magnification
is about 13 times greater than horizontal one due to an artificial taper
mounting used [6]) at a hard turned surface with high feed rate: V = 2 m/s,
f = 0.45 mm/rev, d = 0.2 mm, r = 0.8 mm, VB = 0 mm.
f < 0.3 mm/rev for new tools. The white layer features are
the same as observed before [6]. The boundary between the
white and dark layers is also more clearly defined. It is fur-
ther noticed that, along the cutting edge, the white layer is
deeper (evaluated from normal to the local edge) around the
tail cutting edge (point A in Fig. 7), and decreases as toward
the lead cutting edge (point B in Fig. 7) where uncut chip
thickness is rather larger. This result is counterintuitive, as it
would be assumed that the larger the uncut chip thickness,
the higher the cutting forces and thus, the deeper the white
layer. This unexpected phenomenon may be caused by sig-
nificant rubbing because of very small uncut chip thickness
around the tail cutting edge. Fig. 8 shows white layer depths
(measurement normal to the cutting edge at the valley of
the surface profile) generated by different nose radius tools
at new tool cutting conditions. Generally speaking, white
layer depth decreases with increasing nose radius. At high
feed rate (0.6 mm/rev) and small nose radius (0.8 mm), ac-
tual depth of cut (about 0.16 mm) did not approach the pro-
grammed depth of cut (0.2 mm) during machining probably

Fig. 7. Hard turned surface photo and a tool nose sketch showing white layer formation along the cutting edge.
 Y.K. Chou, H. Song / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 148 (2004) 259–268
Fig. 8. White layer (WL) depth at different nose radii and feed rates for new tool conditions: V = 2 m/s, d = 0.2 mm.
because of the aggressive cuts used. This may result in shal-
lower white layers at 0.6 mm/rev feed rate. It seems to be
more reasonable to assume that large feed rates would result
in deeper white layer penetration because of larger chip load.
For worn tool cutting, Fig. 9 shows white layer struc-
tures of a hard turned surface (0.2 mm VB) at low feed rate
(0.05 mm/rev). Comparing with Fig. 6, the transition zone
between the white and dark layers is not well defined be-
cause of back tempering of white layer structures that were
formed by cuts at previous revolutions [6]. Fig. 10 shows
white layer depth (average) versus tool nose radius when
Fig. 9. White layer of a surface hard turned with a worn tool at low
feed rate: V = 3 m/s, f = 0.05 mm/rev, d = 0.2 mm, VB = 0.2 mm,
r = 2.4 mm.
263
hard turning using worn tools. In contrast to the results of
fresh tools, white layer depth tends to increase with nose
radius at large wear land.
3.4. Thermal analysis
As white layers mostly appear when cutting with worn
tools, the first attempt is to analyze temperature rise at the
workpiece surface due to wear-land friction heat in sliding
contact; shear plane and rake face heat sources will be con-
sidered in the future work. In finish hard turning, the cutting
geometry is highly three-dimensional, and thus, traditional
thermal models that deal with two-dimensional orthogonal
cutting could not be applied. Furthermore, the workpiece
termed in 2D models is, indeed, the transient material zone,
which will be removed in the subsequent revolutions as the
tool proceeds in the feed direction, and thus, temperature
rise of the workpiece (transient zone) may have little effects
on the final machined surface.
Fig. 11 depicts a finish turning process, showing that the
major cutting action occurs in the tool nose area. As the
cutting zone is small in comparison with the workpiece, the
turning process can be approximately represented by a shap-
ing process on a semi-infinite body, with a curved tool cut-
ting edge, Fig. 12. The three-dimensional nature of the cut-
ting process can be recognized. With wear-land heat source
being the dominant one, the physical model for thermal anal-
ysis could be represented by Fig. 13, showing the wear land,
with definite geometry, sliding on the workpiece surface at
a speed as the cutting velocity. The heat flux generated by
sliding can be estimated to be Fc /Aw , where Fc is the
difference of measured cutting forces between the worn tool
and new tool, and Aw wear-land area. The analysis then can
264 Y.K. Chou, H. Song / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 148 (2004) 259–268

Fig. 10. White layer depth at different nose radii and tool wear: V = 3 m/s, f = 0.05 mm/rev.

Fig. 13. Wear-land sliding on the machined surface as a moving source

of heat problem.

Fig. 11. A finish hard turning process.

rectangular heat source and used to calculate the tempera-
ture rise under the sliding surface, which is a semi-infinite
be approached by the moving source of hear problems pio-
body with a curved upper boundary. As the individual heat
neered by Jaeger [13], however, with an irregular boundary.
source is viewed as infinitesimally small, the curved upper
To tackle the irregular geometry issue, wear-land heat
boundary can be treated as a flat surface, and the Jaeger’s
source is discretized to numerous small segments in the di-
analysis can be applied [13].
rection along the cutting edge, Fig. 14. Then, each small
Eq. (3) is to calculate quasi-steady temperature distribu-
wear-land segment can be considered as an individual thin
tions at the machined surface due to a single heat source
segment:

βq xθ +VBθ /2 −Vη/2α
Tw,θ (x, y, z) = e dη
2πk xθ −VBθ /2

 
 yθ +w/2 e
−V (η2 +ζ 2 +z2θ )/2α

×  dζ, (3)
yθ −w/2 (η2 + ζ 2 + z2θ )

where xθ , yθ , and zθ are along the cutting direction, cutting

edge direction, and workpiece depth for a heat source seg-
ment at position θ (Fig. 14), with the origin at the center of
the heat source segment, VBθ and w are heat source dimen-
Fig. 12. A simplified configuration of finish hard turning. sions at position θ, α and k are thermal diffusivity and con-
 Y.K. Chou, H. Song / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 148 (2004) 259–268
Fig. 14. Discretization of wear-land heat source along the cutting edge.
ductivity of the workpiece material, respectively. The heat
partition coefficient, β in Eq. (3), will be determined later.
The temperature distribution due to the entire wear-land
friction heat source can then be obtained by numerically
integrating temperature rise due to individual heat source
segments, Eq. (4). As computational domain (axes) changes
with heat source segments at different θ, coordinate transfor-
mation has been implemented to achieve this modification:
 θ2
Tw (x, y, z) = Tw,θ (x, y, z) + T0 , (4)
θ1
Fig. 15. An example of temperature contours around the cutting edge.
265
where θ 1 and θ 2 are the functions of depth of cut, feed rate,
and tool nose radius, and T0 is the room temperature. The
heat partition coefficient, β in Eq. (1), can now be deter-
mined by matching the average interface temperatures at the
workpiece and wear-land contact [13]. The average work-
piece surface temperature can be obtained from Eq. (4) with
z = 0. While the wear-land surface temperature can be cal-
culated assuming a stationary heat source (portion of heat
flux generated) on a quarter-infinite body (cutting tool) [13]:
(1 − β)q VB
Tt,ave = 0.473 , (5)
kt
where kt is the tool material thermal conductivity.
Given a set of machining parameters with measured
data, including wear-land geometry and cutting forces,
quasi-steady state temperature distributions at the machined
surface due to wear-land heat source can be determined.
Fig. 15 shows an example of temperature contours on the
axial cross-section at the end of wear-land location (yz
plane, x = VB = 0.2 mm). The bold line indicates the cut-
ting edge and z = 0 is the nominal machined surface. It can
be observed of temperature gradients normal to the cutting
edge as well as around the lead and tail cutting edges. It
can also be seen that the heat generated away from the tail
cutting edge has less contributions to the temperature rise at
the final machined workpiece surface, below z = 0. This is
intuitive as the more toward the lead cutting edge, the large
the transient zone, which will be removed by subsequent
revolutions, for heat to dissipate.
Experimental results at two wear-land levels and vari-
ous nose radii were used to evaluate temperature penetra-
tions at the machined workpiece surfaces at different condi-
tions. Table 1 listed cutting parameters and measured results.
Fig. 16, with three subsets, compares temperature penetra-
tion at the machined surface for VB = 0.1 mm with dif-
ferent nose radii. Note that the figures shown are similar to
Fig. 15, but are close-up around the tail cutting edge in or-
266 Y.K. Chou, H. Song / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 148 (2004) 259–268

Fig. 16. Temperature contours beneath the machined surface due to

wear-land heat source: V = 3 m/s, d = 0.2 mm, f = 0.05 mm/rev, Fig. 17. Temperature contours beneath the machined surface due to
VB = 0.1 mm. wear-land heat source: V = 3 m/s, d = 0.2 mm, f = 0.05 mm/rev,
VB = 0.2 mm.
 Y.K. Chou, H. Song / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 148 (2004) 259–268 267

Fig. 18. Measured and predicted white layer depths in finish hard turning with different nose radius tools.

by shear plane heat source may balance out its positive ef-
der to exam the maximum temperature contours beneath the
fect on temperature rise by wear-land heat source. This issue
nominal machined surface in detail. Fig. 17, also three sub-
will be addressed in the future work that will include shear
sets, compares temperature penetration for VB = 0.2 mm
plane, rake face, and wear-land heat sources altogether for
with different nose radii. Qualitatively, it can be concluded
temperature analysis at machined surfaces.
that the larger the nose radius, the deeper the high temper-
ature penetration. This agrees with the argument that the
transient zone for heat penetration around the cutting edge
4. Conclusions
proportionally decreases with the tool nose radius, and thus,
results in deeper temperature penetration. If the phase trans-
Tool nose radius is a geometric parameter in machining
formation temperature is known (∼730 ◦ C for steel), it could
and its effects on finish hard turning have been investigated,
be used to evaluate the white layer depth [6]. Fig. 18 plots
especially on white layer formations. Large tool nose radii
both critical temperature penetration depths from the anal-
seem to only have the advantage of finer surface finish,
ysis and measured white layer depths from experiments. It
yet tool wear is comparable and specific cutting energy is
can be observed that the analytical predictions agree with
slightly higher. Maximum uncut chip thickness decreases
the trend of white layer depths at large wear land (0.2 mm
with tool nose radius that may result in higher plowing
VB). Note that, however, the phase transformation temper-
energy, and thus, higher specific cutting energy. Large nose
ature during machining may not be the same as the nomi-
radius tools generate shallower white layers in new tool
nal values reported in heat treatment references, because the
cutting; however, leave deeper white layers when cutting by
mechanical loading may alter phase transformation process
worn tools. For new tools, small nose radius results in larger
as well. For 0.1 mm VB, white layer depth of 0.8 mm nose
uncut thickness, and thus, induces deeper white layers.
radius is greater than the predicted value and the trend is not
On the other hand, in worn tool cutting, large nose radius
clear. It is plausible to argue that additional temperature rise
has a shorter transition-material zone that results in deeper
at machined surfaces due to shear plane heat source may not
white layers, qualitatively verified by thermal analysis at
be the same for different nose radii. As discussed above, the
machined surfaces.
smaller the nose radius, the larger the uncut chip thickness,
and thus, the stronger the shear plane heat source. There-
fore, the negative tool nose radius effect on temperature rise
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