These days, power consumption and energy related issues are very hot topics of research especially for machine tooling process industries because of the strict environmental regulations and policies. Hence, the present paper discusses the application of such an advanced machining process i.e., ultrasonic assisted turning (UAT) process with the collaboration of nature inspired algorithms to determine the ideal solution. The cutting speed, feed rate, depth of cut and frequency of cutting tool were considered as input variables and the machining performance of Nimonic-90 alloy in terms of surface roughness and power consumption has been investigated. Then, the experimentation was conducted as per the Taguchi L9 orthogonal array and the mono as well as bi-objective optimizations were performed with standard particle swarm and hybrid particle swarm with simplex methods (PSO-SM). Further, the statistical analysis was performed with well-known analysis of variance (ANOVA) test. After that, the regression equation along with selected boundary conditions was used for creation of fitness function in the subjected algorithms. The results showed that the UAT process was more preferable for the Nimconic-90 alloy as compared with conventional turning process. In addition, the hybrid PSO-SM gave the best results for obtaining the minimized values of selected responses.
Keywords: Nimonic-90; nature inspired hybrid algorithm; optimization; power consumption; surface roughness; ultrasonically assisted turning.