The present work investigates the influence of variations in cutting speed, feed, depth of cut and nose radius on both machining energy intake and the resulting surface texture throughout turning of AA7075 reinforced with 15 wt% SiC particles, sized 10–20 µm. The response surface methodology (RSM) technique was employed to accomplish the minimum surface roughness and energy utilization. 3D surface curves of RSM showed cutting speed to be the key reason in minimizing surface roughness and energy intake, and subsequently depth of the cut, feed and radius of nose. Multi-response optimization values of cutting factors through turning of AA7075/15 wt% SiC to minimize surface roughness and energy utilization have been found by desirability analysis. The results show that a 16.06% reduction in surface roughness can be achieved by merely increasing electrical energy consumption by 4.88%. Turning to the cutting parameter value obtained by multi-response optimization results in the reduction of energy consumption and surface roughness. Naturally available materials were utilized for fabrication. The novelty of this work is that scarce literature has been reported on the determination of the optimal process parameters for turning AA7075/15 wt% SiC (10–20 µm) composites at which minimum electrical energy will be consumed, and minimum surface roughness will be obtained.

Desirability approach, energy consumption, surface roughness, AA7075, multi-objective optimization, Response Surface Methodology

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