Convective cooling and heat partitioning to grinding chips in high speed grinding of a nickel based superalloy

The level and variation of energy partition ratio to grinding chips in high speed grinding of a nickel based alloy has been investigated. The ratio to grinding chips is evaluated by relating the heat partitioning at the chip formation area with the whole thermal system, which is used to evaluate the convection heat transfer coefficient (CHTC) of water based grinding fluid. High level of CHTCs of the grinding fluid have been identified at high grinding speeds, beneficial heat transfer conditions of low ratios to the workpiece can be achieved. As the burnout happens with the CHTC dropping down to zero level, the ratio to the workpiece and grinding chips would become much higher, around 30–40 % of the grinding heat can be taken away by grinding chips. For nickel based superalloys, it is possible to achieve high material removal rates with the effective cooling of the grinding zone.