In the metal cutting process, the friction and wear behavior between the cutting tool and machined surface is the most important factor that affects the surface quality and the service life of the cutter. The irregular pore structure of porous titanium alloy has changed its mechanical properties and the processing technology. The friction and wear mechanism of the cutting tool and the machined surface is greatly different from the traditional dense metal processing because of the crumbling at the edges, tearing phenomenon and the pore agglomeration effect of chips. In this paper, the tribological characteristics and the wear mechanism of friction pair which was formed by porous titanium alloy material and hard alloy cutter were studied from cutting force, cutting speed and temperature in micro-cutting condition, and the influence of porosity on the wear rate and friction coefficient was analyzed. Results show that the main factor which influences the friction coefficient and wear rate is the porosity. The wear mechanisms of porous titanium materials were abrasive and oxidation wear while the wear mechanism of tungsten carbide YG6 was abrasive wear. The friction coefficient and wear rate of the relatively stable state are beneficial to improve the surface quality and tool life. As a result, in the micro-cutting process of porous titanium alloys, the best choice of machining parameters for different porosity materials are as follows: the load is about 8 N, the sliding speed is about 400 r/min and the temperature is about 300 °C.

In this paper, the accurate description of the relationship between flow stress and strain of porous titanium alloys at various strain rates and temperatures were investigated with dynamic and quasistatic uniaxial compression tests for a further study on the processing mechanism of porous titanium material. Changes in their plastic flows were described through the one-dimensional Drucker-Prager (DP) constitutive model. Porous titanium alloys were micromilled in a DP simulation. After all parameters had been obtained in the DP model, the experimental and simulated true stress-strain curves and flow stress levels of two porous titanium alloys were compared to estimate the precision of the model. The findings were as follows. First, porous titanium alloys show deformation patterns characterized by pore collapse-induced deformation and have strong stress-hardening effects, but the patterns did not include noticeable plastic-flow plateaus. Second, porosity strongly affects the mechanical strength, strain-rate sensitivity, and temperature sensitivity of both alloys. Third, the DP model sufficiently describes the mechanical properties of both alloys at 25–300 °C and at strain rates of 1000–3000 s⁻¹, with a deviation of 10% or lower.