Influence of the Grinding Wheel in the Ductile Grinding of Brittle Materials: Development and Verification of Kinematic Based Model

Abstract

Empirical evidence has shown that grinding wheel characteristics significantly affect performance in the grinding of brittle materials. In this research a grit depth of cut model was developed based on a kinematic simulation of the grinding process. The model describes the relationships between grinding wheel parameters (grit size, concentration, binder modulus) and chip thickness and area. It was corroborated by the measurement of number of cutting grits in tests using a fly wheel with small abrasive area. Based on this grit depth of cut model, the “critical depth of cut” model for the grinding of brittle materials was modified to include wheel parameter effects. The new critical depth of cut model was tested using “crossfeed” experiments. Although the theoretical and experimental results show less agreement than for the grit depth of cut model, the model equations provide guidelines for choosing wheel specifications.