Kinematics Simulation of Grinding Process Based on Virtual Wheel Model and Micro-Cutting Analysis

Grinding is a special machining process with large number of parameters influencing each other. Any grinding process involves six basic microscopic wheel-workpiece interaction modes in terms of grain cutting, plowing, and sliding, as well as bond-workpiece friction, chip-workpiece friction, and chipbond friction. And quantification of all the 6 modes immensely enhances understanding and managing of the grinding processes. In this paper, the kinematics simulation is presented to imitate the grinding wheel surface moving against the workpiece under specified grinding conditions. The grinding wheel surface is imported from the fabrication analysis based grinding wheel model of previous work. During each simulation iteration step, it provides the number of contacting grains, contact cross-section area for each grain, and resultant workpiece surface condition. Through retrieving the specific force value from the single grain cutting simulation, the cutting force and plowing force can be calculated. This model can also be potentially used in the time dependent behavior and thermal analysis of grinding processes.