Life cycle assessment to reduce environmental and carbon footprints of ultrasonic-assisted turning

Abstract

Abstract This work emphasizes life cycle assessment (LCA) for conventional and ultrasonic assisted turning (UAT) of Inconel 718 under six different combinations of cooling/lubricant strategies (LCO2, MQL, and EMQL). The results indicate that when LCO2 is flown on the rake whereas EMQL on the flank face, the tool wear, surface roughness, and energy consumption are significantly reduced compared to other strategies. The surface roughness is lowered approximately by 3–43% in the UAT compared to CT. The LCA results show that the combination of EMQL-MQL has more impact on the environment as it had a separate setup for charging the mist particles by a high voltage, followed by LCO2-EMQL and LCO2-MQL technique. The major impact is on the Ecosystem by 76.2%, 74.2%, and 75.3% in LCO2-EMQL, EMQL-MQL, and LCO2-MQL. It is concluded that LCO2-EMQL is the best strategy for creating a balance between both technical and environmental parameters.