Variation of wheel-work contact geometry and temperature responses: Thermal modeling of cup wheel grinding

For the thermal modeling of cup wheel grinding process, most previous studies ignored the effect of wheel-work contact geometry on the amplitude and distribution of heat flux and grinding temperature, which oversimplifies the heat transfer condition when compared with that in the real grinding process, as a cup wheel typically has a rounded edge, due to the rapid wear during the initial grinding passes. In this paper, the relationships among the wheel-work contact geometry, the local material removal pattern at the grinding zone and the grinding temperature distribution have been investigated. A comprehensive 3D analytical thermal model considering the wheel-work contact geometry and its effect on the grinding heat flux distribution has been established and experimentally validated. The heat flux distribution in cup wheel grinding varies with the contact geometry and also the grinding parameters, which has never been mentioned in previous works. It has been found that the variation of the contact geometry significantly changes the local material removal pattern, and thus affects the grinding temperature distribution. Validation experiment results have demonstrated that the developed model could, to a great extent, describe the realistic grinding temperature. The relative errors of the maximum temperature are less than 6.6%, and the relative errors of the position of the maximum temperature are less than 8.5%. This research not only provides a new method to predict grinding temperature, but also enhances the understanding of cup wheel grinding processes.