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Influence of grain wear on material removal behavior during grinding nickel-

based superalloy with a single diamond grain

Article  in  International Journal of Machine Tools and Manufacture · December 2016

DOI: 10.1016/j.ijmachtools.2016.12.001

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 International Journal of Machine Tools & Manufacture 113 (2017) 49–58

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

International Journal of Machine Tools & Manufacture

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijmactool

Influence of grain wear on material removal behavior during grinding MARK

nickel-based superalloy with a single diamond grain
⁎
Chenwei Daia, Wenfeng Dinga, , Jiuhua Xua, Yucan Fua, Tianyu Yub
a
College of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing 210016, PR China

y
b
Department of Aerospace Engineering, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50010, USA

op
A R T I C L E I N F O A BS T RAC T

C
Keywords: In order to explore the effect of grain wear on material removal behavior during grinding nickel-based
Single diamond grain superalloy Inconel 718, the grinding experiment with a single diamond grain was carried out. The variations of
Material removal grain wear, grinding force and force ratio, and pile-up ratio were investigated under the conditions of

's
Grinding force undeformed chip thickness (UCT) ranging from 0.2 to 1 µm. The results show that a critical UCT value, such as
Wear
0.3 µm, could be determined according to the pile-up ratio and could also be used to quantify the material

or
Pile-up
removal process. The wear behavior of a diamond grain shows four types, such as crescent depression on the
rake face, abrasion on the flank face, grain micro-fracture, and grain macro-fracture. Furthermore, these
th
classifications are determined by the dwell time of rubbing, ploughing and cutting at different UCT values
applied. The grinding force ratio increases with increasing of the negative rake angle of a diamond grain. In the
rubbing and ploughing stages, the material removal efficiency is proportional to the wear width on the rake face.
Au
However, in the cutting stage, the material removal efficiency is diminished in the absence process of crescent
depression.
y

1. Introduction Furthermore, with the significant development of grinding methods

op

with a single diamond or CBN grain in the present days [7–9], great
In the past decades, grinding with diamond and cubic boron nitride efforts have been made to further understand the material removal
(CBN) superabrasive wheels have become popular to machine difficult- mechanism [10,11]. Besides, more and more research work has also
C

to-cut materials, i.e., nickel-based superalloy and titanium alloy [1,2]. been carried out to investigate the grain wear behavior based on the
However, the wear behavior of abrasive tools can greatly affect the single grain grinding method [12–14]. Particularly, Buhl et al. [13] and
machined surface quality and integrity [3], the reason of which is that Wu et al. [14], respectively, reported that the rake angle and grain
's

the different wear status of the abrasive tools could produce different shape have great influence on the grinding force and wear resistance of
material removal behavior during grinding. Generally, the classification abrasive grains. It should be noted that, the investigation on grain wear
or

of wear behavior in grinding includes the wear of abrasive tools and the behavior is still lacking from the micro aspect perspective, especially
wear of abrasive grains. In recent years, more attention has been paid the evolution of wear behavior under different process parameters,
th

to the research on wear behavior of abrasive tools from the macro which would affect abrasive tool wear in the grinding process. It is also
perspective. For example, Shen et al. [4] and Herman et al. [5], a well-known fact that, according to the previous publication about
respectively, investigated the wear behavior of diamond and CBN grinding mechanism [15], the maximum undeformed chip thickness
Au

superabrasive wheels, in which the radial wear has been investigated
as an evaluation parameter for the grinding performance. At the same
time, Upadhyaya et al. [6] also discussed the effects of the wear of CBN
wheels on the surface roughness during grinding. It is noted that,
however, further studies are still necessary on the wear behavior of
abrasive grains from the micro perspective since several micro-cutting
events happen simultaneously on thousands of active cutting grains
(Fig. 1).
(UCT for short in this article) greatly affects the grinding process in not
only the grains grinding force, but also in the grinding temperature
within the wheel-workpiece contact zone. Under such conditions, the
grain wear behavior is highly dynamic and hard to predict in the
grinding process.
For these reasons, in order to improve the abrasive tool life and
material removal efficiency, it is particularly important to investigate
the effect of grain wear behavior on the material removal mechanism

⁎
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: dingwf2000@vip.163.com (W. Ding).

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijmachtools.2016.12.001
Received 17 October 2016; Received in revised form 1 December 2016; Accepted 2 December 2016
Available online 06 December 2016
0890-6955/ © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
C. Dai et al.
Wheel
vs
ap
Grain
vw Workpiece
Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of the grinding process with monolayer diamond or CBN
abrasive wheels.
by controlling the UCT. In the present work, nickel-based superalloy
Inconel 718, as a typical difficult-to-cut material, has been chosen as
workpiece material during the grinding experiments with a single
grain. In order to control the initial cutting edge condition more easily,
the diamond grains with regular shape are utilized rather than CBN
grains with irregular shape. Grinding force with a single grain has been
measured. Pile-up ratio is also calculated to detect the material removal
behavior. Meanwhile, in order to further investigate the variation of the
grain wear behavior, grain morphologies and grinding force are
analyzed under different values of UCT. Finally, the influence of grain
wear behavior on material removal process has been discussed.
Accordingly, in the future research work, the abrasive tool wear could
be controlled to improve the material remove rate (MRR) based on the
currently experimental and theoretical findings.
2. Experimental method and details
The experimental set-up for the present single grain grinding
operation is displayed in Fig. 2. Surface grinding tests were carried
Au
out on a high-speed surface grinder (PROFIMAT MT 408) with the
capabilities of workpiece infeed speed ranging from 15 mm/min to
25 m/min, the maximum spindle power of 45 kW, the highest revolu-
tion of 8000 rpm. Besides, the coolant with pressure of 15 MPa and
flowrate of 90 L/min was utilized; as such, the effect of grinding
y
temperature on grain wear could be generally ignored due to the
op
excellent cooling condition. The cub-octahedral diamond grains [9,14]
in 35/40 mesh size with regular shape were used for the purpose of
controlling the cutting edge more easily. According to Ref. [14], the
C
wear resistance of a diamond grain usually differs significantly when
grinding with different crystal faces, where crystal face (100) shows a
better performance than that at crystal face (111). In order to keep a
's
or
th
Au
Fig. 2. Schematic diagram of the present single grain grinding operation.
50
International Journal of Machine Tools & Manufacture 113 (2017) 49–58
constant grinding condition, the diamond grains were controlled at the
particular crystal face (100) from the top view. Under such conditions,
each diamond grain would have a better wear resistance to work for a
longer time in single grain grinding. Besides, in each grinding test, only
one cutting edge for each diamond grain perpendicular to the wheel
speed direction was used. Therefore, the present single grain grinding
operation is similar to the conventional cutting operation (such as
milling) which uses a tool with fixed geometrical shape and angles. As a
result, in the current work, it is generally reasonable to refer to the tool
wear behavior in the micro-milling operations (such as, Refs. [16–19])
to discuss the grain wear behavior during grinding.
A single diamond grain was brazed with Ag-Cu-Ti alloy on a steel
holder, which was mounted to a steel block with screws. The assembled
components were then fixed in a V-shaped slot of the wheel substrate.
The workpiece material was nickel-based superalloy Inconel 718. Prior
to the single grain grinding tests, a precision surface grinding had been
carried out using alumina wheels on the workpiece in order to obtain
y
the required ground surface roughness, such as Ra 0.4 µm. In the trials,
op
the single diamond grain was precisely preset by using an acoustic
emission instrument (DITTEL AE6000). The grinding force was
measured in different grain wear stages by the three components
C
piezoelectric dynamometer (KISTLER 9317C) attached with a charge
amplifier (KISTLER 5018).
The radius of the cutting edge circle of single diamond grains
's
applied has been measured using an atomic force microscope (AFM).
The dimension of the radius was nearly 0.54 µm. For this reason, tests
or
were conducted in grain wear-free status to better understand the
material removal process. A parametric study has been first conducted
under various UCT values, ranging from 0.16 to 1 µm. Then, in order to
th
comprehensively investigate the grain wear behavior, the UCT values
were set at three different levels, such as 0.2 µm, 0.5 µm and 1 µm. For
generation of wedge-shaped chips as shown in Fig. 3, the required
workpiece infeed speed could be calculated according to the following
formula [15]:
vw ap
agmax = 2λ
vs ds (1)
where λ is the spacing between active grains (taking λ=πds here), agmax
is the UCT, vw is the workpiece infeed speed, vs is the wheel speed, ap is
the depth of cut and ds=390 mm is the wheel diameter.
Table 1 lists the parameters applied in the present grinding tests
with single diamond grains.
C. Dai et al. International Journal of Machine Tools & Manufacture 113 (2017) 49–58

0.30
vs=30m/s
0.28
vs=50m/s
0.26

Pile-up ratio Rs
0.24
0.22
0.20
0.18
0.16
Fig. 3. Schematic diagram of wedge-shaped chips. 0.14
0.12
Table 1
Grinding process parameters. 0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0
Undeformed chip thickness agmax/ μm

y
Process parameters Values
Fig. 5. Pile-up ratio versus UCT.

op
Grain wear-free Grain wear

Undeformed chip thickness (UCT) agmax 0.16–1 0.2, 0.5, 1 direction by using 3D optical profiler for each test. Then, AutoCAD has
(µm) been used to reconstruct the cross-section profiles and the average

C
Depth of cut ap (mm) 0.02 0.02 value of these three pile-up ratios has been calculated.
Wheel speed vs (m/s) 30, 50, 80 30
Workpiece infeed speed vw (mm/min) 16.4–223.5 20.5, 51.3, 102.6

's
Grinding mode Up grinding, water based coolant 3. Results and discussion

or
3.1. Material removal characteristics in the case of grain wear-free
During the grain wear experiment, for each group of grinding
parameters, the grinding force has been first collected in every two
In general, the grinding-workpiece contact could be separated into
passes (each pass length is 60 mm). From the ninth pass, reading of the
th
three stages: rubbing, ploughing and cutting [20–22]. In rubbing, only
grinding force was carried out for every three passes. During the whole
elastic deformation occurred, in which each grain slides on the material
grinding tests, after each force reading, the diamond grain morphology
Au
with small penetration into the workpiece. When the grain penetrates
has been recorded with the 3D optical profiler (SENSOFAR S NEOX)
deeper into the workpiece, ploughing occurs in both elastic and plastic
by disassembling the grain holder from the wheel substrate. The grain
deformation form, where the scratch becomes more evident with ridges
wear morphology has been characterized quantitatively in each test.
formed on both sides. As the grain further penetrates, the material is
Since each grain size is different in different test, the specific material
y

removed rapidly and chip formation takes place [15]. Since the pile-up
removal volume (SMRV) ΔV′ is used to evaluate the amount of material
ratio reflects the material removal ability, it is obtained at different
op

removed:
UCT values under grain wear-free condition to identify different
ΔV ′ = V / b = ap⋅L (2) material removal stages, as shown in Fig. 5. Obviously, if the UCT
value is smaller than 0.3 µm, the pile-up ratio increases gradually with
C

where V is the material removal volume, b is the groove width which is

increasing of UCT values. That is to say, more materials are left over
different for different grain, ap=0.02 mm is the depth of cut in the
the workpiece surface, which indicates that the ploughing stage
current experiment, and L is the length of the total grinding pass.
dominates. Once the UCT value reaches 0.3 µm, the pile-up ratio drops
's

The pile-up ratio, which is defined as the ratio of the total pile-up
rapidly. Then, it remains a constant as the UCT value is larger than
area to the total groove section area, is a sound method to quantify the
0.4 µm. In this case, the amount of left pile-up material has decreased
or

material removal behavior [7]. As illustrated in Fig. 4, the pile-up areas

for the reason that the workpiece material is mainly removed as chip
are B1 and B2, and groove section area is characterized by A. Thus the
formation rather than the pile-up around the scratch groove. Thus, a
pile-up ratio Rs could be expressed as:
th

critical UCT value ag, critical, i.e., about 0.3 µm, can be identified for
Rs = (B1 + B2 )/ A (3) nickel-based superalloy Inconel 718, which can be expressed as:
Au

In order to obtain the values of pile-up ratio, the cross-section
profiles have been measured three times along the workpiece longitude
Fig. 4. 3D morphology and cross-section profiles of a single grain grinding surface.
ag, critical = 0.56re (4)
where re is the radius of cutting edge.
Moreover, by comparing the measured grinding force at different
values of UCT (Fig. 6(a)), it could be found that the grinding force
varies in two different stages due to the different material deformation
characteristics in grinding, which agrees well with the results of Hahn
[23]. On one hand, when the UCT value is less than 0.3 µm, the
grinding process is in rubbing and ploughing stages where the material
is frictioned and pulled along the front and side faces of a grain. On the
other hand, in the case of the UCT larger than 0.3 µm, chip formation
takes place and the material removal increases rapidly.
The definition of critical UCT value from the variations of pile-up
ratio and grinding force can be interpreted from the specific grinding
energy. In the current grinding tests, the undeformed chip is in a wedge
shape, which can be approximated as a triangle. The specific grinding
energy es is defined as the energy consumed to remove per unit volume

51
C. Dai et al. International Journal of Machine Tools & Manufacture 113 (2017) 49–58

35 600

Specific grinding energy es/ (J/mm3)

vs=30m/s
30 vs=80m/s
Grinding force F/N 500
25
400
20
300 es=110a-0.83
gmax
15
vs=30m/s, Ft
200
10
vs=30m/s, Fn
vs=80m/s, Ft
100
5
vs=80m/s, Fn
0 0
0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 1.2 0.0 0.4 0.8 1.2 1.6 2.0
Undeformed chip thickness agmax /μm Undeformed chip thickness agmax /μm

y
(a) Grinding forces (b) Specific grinding energy

op
Fig. 6. Size effect on grinding force and specific grinding energy. (a) Grinding force (b) specific grinding energy.

C
of material, which can be expressed as:
es = W / V = (Ft ls )/(agmax ls b /2) = 2Ft /(agmax⋅b ) (5) Crescent Abrasion
depresion

's
where W is the energy consumption to remove the material in a single
grain-workpiece contact zone, V is the volume of undeformed chip
Cutting edge

or
material to be removed, ls=(apds)1/2 is the length of grain-workpiece
contact zone and b=0.3 mm is the width of the undeformed chip. Flank face
Rake face
It is reported that, the specific grinding energy is consumed by
means of primary and secondary rubbing energy, ploughing energy and
th
chip formation energy [24]. Among them, the ploughing energy and
Au
chip formation energy are constant for the determinate material, which
are determined by the material mechanical properties, such as dynamic Grain micro- Grain macro-
yield shearing strength and workpiece hardness. However, the rubbing fracture fracture
energy is inversely proportional to the UCT. According to Eq. (5), the
y

variation of specific grinding energy with increasing UCT is plotted in

Fig. 6(b). Obviously, the specific grinding energy obeys the typical size
op

effect rule in grinding. In case of a small UCT ( < 0.3 µm particularly),

the specific grinding energy has larger values and decreases quickly
with the increase of UCT, which indicates that it is mainly composed of
C

the high rubbing energy and relatively low ploughing energy. However, Fig. 7. Classifications of grain wear behavior.
as the UCT value gets larger, the specific grinding energy decreases at a
slower rate, which shows the grinding process mainly consists of the stages in the grain-workpiece contact zone is significantly different.
's

cutting stage with small cutting energy. Based on the results shown in When only the rubbing and ploughing stages take place in the grinding
Fig. 6(b), the relationship between specific grinding energy and UCT process, as shown in Fig. 9(a), the stress concentration on the cutting
or

could be calculated by Eq. (6): edge is so severe that abrasion and grain fracture appear, due to the
−0.83
es = 110agmax attritious wear on the flank face and the spring-back effect from the
(6)
th

elastic deformation of the ground surface material, respectively.

However, no crescent depression occurs because chip formation of
Au

the material is rather difficult which is necessary in the rake face

3.2. Classification of grain wear behavior in single grain grinding
In general, during the single grain grinding of Inconel 718, the
diamond grain wear behavior shows mainly four types: crescent
depression on the rake face, abrasion on the flank face, grain micro-
fracture, and grain macro-fracture, as schematically displayed in Figs. 7
and 8. The grain wear behavior obtained at different UCT values in the
current investigation are tabulated in Table 2. It shows the wear
evolution of diamond grains could be divided into two stages: (i) the
initial wear stage, acting as the formation of crescent depression on the
rake face and the abrasion wear on the flank face; (ii) the steady wear
stage, in which the wear behavior on the rake and flank face is
dramatically influenced by different UCT values.
According to the deduce of the critical UCT value in Section 3.1, the
rubbing, ploughing and cutting stages at UCT of 0.2, 0.5 and 1 µm are
schematically shown in Fig. 9. Obviously, the percentage of these three
attritious wear. Seen from Fig. 9(b), when the dwell time of cutting
stage is approximately the same as that of the rubbing and ploughing
stages, the removed chips flow on the rake face, which increases the
crescent depression caused by the frictional interaction with removed
chips. When the cutting stage dominates, as displayed in Fig. 9(c), most
of the load is shared by the rake face. Thus, the spring-back effect from
ground surface in rubbing and ploughing stages is too weak to fracture
the grains. Theoretically, according to the increasing of SMRV, the
grain wear behavior could be interpreted in Fig. 10 based on the
experimental results.
3.3. Analysis of grain wear behavior from the viewpoint of grinding
force
Fig. 11 shows the relationship between grinding force and SMRV at
three given levels of UCT in the present investigation. With the increase

52
C. Dai et al. International Journal of Machine Tools & Manufacture 113 (2017) 49–58

Abrasion Grain micro-fracture New rake face Grain macro-fracture

vs
Cutting edge vs Cutting edge

(b) agmax=0.5 μm, ΔV’=22.2 mm3/mm

(a) agmax=0.2 μm, ΔV’=5.44 mm3/mm

y
op
Abrasion Crescent depression

C
's
vs

Cutting edge
or
th
Au

(c) agmax=1 μm, ΔV’=2.88 mm3/mm

Fig. 8. Morphology of grain wear in the single grain grinding.
y

of SMRV, the normal grinding force Fn and tangential grinding force Ft

op

Table 2 tend to increase first and then keep stable. However, the growth rate of
Grain wear behavior at given UCTs.
the grinding force is different at each level of UCT values. When the
UCT is 0.2 or 0.5 µm, the grinding force rises up at a relatively higher
C

Classification agmax=0.2 µm agmax=0.5 µm agmax=1 µm

growth rate in the initial wear stage. Moreover, the growth rate at the
Crescent depression No Yes Yes UCT of 0.2 µm is higher than that at 0.5 µm. This indicates stress
Abrasion Yes Yes Yes
concentration on the cutting edge is more prominent in the case of
's

Grain micro-fracture Yes Yes No

Grain macro-fracture Yes Yes No small UCT, which rapids the grain wear and the increase of grinding
force. When the UCT further increases to 1 µm, the load mostly acts on
or

the rake face. Thus, the grain wear around the cutting edge is not
th

Rubbing and ploughing

Au

a a
Accumulated
material
(a) agmax=0.2 μm
Cutting Rubbing and ploughing
Chip
a a

(b) agmax=0.5 μm
Chip
Cutting
Rubbing and ploughing
a
a

(c) agmax=1 μm
Fig. 9. Schematic diagram of the rubbing, ploughing and cutting stages.

53
C. Dai et al. International Journal of Machine Tools & Manufacture 113 (2017) 49–58

Fig. 10. Schematic diagram of wear behavior of diamond grain in the case of UCT of 0.2 and 1 µm.

concentration on the cutting edge, grain wear takes place quickly. As a

result, the grinding force rises up at a large growth rate. Once the new
rake face is formed, the amount of accumulated material keeps nearly a
constant, which stabilizes the grinding force. Because of the continuous
formation of new rake faces in the grain wear procedure, the grinding
force fluctuates between 50 and 70 N. When the UCT is 0.5 µm, as
displayed in Fig. 12(b), the crescent depression on the rake face keeps
expanding in the early stage, which results in the increase of contact

y
area between a grain and flowing chips. Thus, the grinding force

op
gradually increases first and then remains stable until grain fracture
appears around the cutting edge. When the UCT reaches at 1 µm, the
crescent depression forms gradually in the initial wear stage, making

C
the amount of flowing chip vary slightly, as demonstrated in Fig. 12(c).
Therefore, the grinding force increases slowly. However, because the
abrasion wear of a diamond grain on the flank face is getting serious,

's
the load on the cutting edge is increased, which results in the suddenly
expanded crescent depression. While the crescent depression disap-

or
Fig. 11. Grinding force versus SMRV.
pears gradually with the increase of SMRV, the negative rake angle is
enlarged. As a result, the grinding force increases. At last, once the
remarkable. Under such conditions, the grinding force increases slowly
crescent depression is completely transferred into the new sharp
in the initial wear stage. However, when the SMRV reaches 6.8 mm3/
th
cutting edge, the grinding force remains stable.
mm, due to the appearance of crescent depression on the rake face, the
It could be found by further analysis of grinding force that, when
Au
grinding force grows quickly with a growth rate approximate to that in
the grinding force remains stable, the SMRV values are different at
the case of UCT of 0.5 µm.
three levels of UCT. The critical values are 8.16, 14.4 and 21.84 mm3/
The changes of grinding force with increasing SMRV could be
mm at the UCT of 0.2, 0.5 and 1 µm, respectively. It is inferred that, by
attributed to the grain wear behavior. When the UCT is 0.2 µm, seen
increasing the UCT value, more material would be removed when the
from Fig. 12(a), since small chips are generated by removing material,
y

grinding force becomes stable in the wear process. That is to say, the
more and more material accumulates on the rake face. Due to the stress
grain wear rate would be effectively reduced if the UCT is increased to
op
C

Accumulated Accumulated
β1 material Accumulated β4
material β2 β3 material
Accumulated Grain micro-
's

Grain macro-
material fracture fracture
vs vs vs vs
or

β1 β2 β3 β4
(a) agmax=0.2 μm
th
Au

Chip β1 Chip β2 β23 Chip β4

Chip Grain micro- Grain macro-
fracture frcture
vs vs vs vs
β1 β2 β3 β4
(b) agmax=0.5 μm

β1 Chip Chip Chip

Chip β2 β3 β4

vs vs vs vs
β1 β2 β3 β4
(c) agmax=1 μm
Fig. 12. Schematic diagram of material removal behavior and the variation of the negative rake angle in grinding.

54
C. Dai et al. International Journal of Machine Tools & Manufacture 113 (2017) 49–58

1.4 twice the radius of cutting edge circle.

3.4. Relationship between grinding force ratio and negative rake

Grinding force ratio Fn/Ft

1.2
angle in grain wear process

1.0 Fig. 13 provides the relationship between grinding force ratio and
the SMRV at different UCT values. Obviously, when the UCT is 0.2 µm,
the grinding force ratio always fluctuates between 0.9 and 1.2. When it
0.8 is 0.5 µm, the grinding force ratio first increases gradually, and then
agmax=0.2μm remains around 1.08 when the SMRV increases to 10 mm3/mm. When
agmax=0.5μm the UCT is 1 µm, the grinding force ratio first keeps a constant of 0.82
0.6 until the SMRV reaches at 10 mm3/mm, then gradually rise up to 1.12
agmax=1.0μm
with the SMRV increases to 20 mm3/mm, and finally they remain
constants again at 1.12. It could be inferred from the grain wear
0.4 behavior and the variation of grinding force ratio that, the gradually
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
disappeared crescent depression on the rake face would result in the
Specific material removal volume Δ V'/ mm3/mm

y
increase of actual negative rake angle, which is diagrammed in Fig. 12.
Fig. 13. Grinding force ratio versus SMRV. In the case of UCT of 0.2 µm, since the workpiece material always

op
presses the cutting edge, the rake and flank faces wear synchronously,
as displayed in Fig. 10(a). Thus, little change in the negative rake angle
(β1≈β2≈β3≈β4) makes the grinding force ratio a constant, as shown in

C
Fig. 12(a). While in the case of UCT of 0.5 µm, seen from Fig. 12(b), the
A dFx A negative rake angle is enlarged (β1 < β2) due to the expanding of
crescent depression in the initial wear stage. When the grain fracture

's
happens around the cutting edge, the rake and flank faces also wear
synchronously, which causes the negative rake angle change slightly

or
Y (β2≈β3≈β4). However, when the UCT is 1 µm, the generated crescent
X depression is insignificant in the beginning, so the negative rake angle
Cutting direction
th
doesn't alter very much (β1≈β2), as displayed in Fig. 12(c). Once the
crescent depression disappears gradually, the negative rake angle is
increased (β2 < β3). Finally, the negative rake angle remains a constant
Au
A-A (β3≈β4) again as the new cutting edge is generated.
The specific grinding force Fp is defined as the force per unit area in
the grain moving direction. The forces on the two sides of a grain are
dFx,n dFx balanced out by each other. Only the forces on rake face are considered,
y

as diagramed in Fig. 14.

op

In every cross-section X-X, the grinding force dFx perpendicularly

dFx,t ag loads on the rake face, which is calculated by:
dFfr,t
dFx = Fp dA cos β (7)
C

dFfr where β is the negative rake angle.

dFfr,n The cell area in the grain-workpiece contact zone is:
's

dA = ag dy /cos β (8)
Fig. 14. Grinding force model in single grain grinding.
or

where ag is the actual cutting depth of the grain.

Thus, Eq. (7) can be rewritten as:
th

dFx = Fp ag dy (9)

According to the grinding force model shown in Fig. 14, the force
Au

dFx could be decomposed into the force along and perpendicular to the
cutting direction, which are written as:
dFx, t = dFx cos β (10)

dFx, n = dFx sin β (11)

The total friction force along the grain rake face dFfr makes the
formed chip flowing out of the grain-workpiece contact zone, which is
defined as:
dFfr = μdFx (12)

where μ is the friction coefficient and the value is 0.23 [25].

As such, the friction force can also be decomposed into the force
along and perpendicular to the cutting direction, which are expressed
Fig. 15. Comparison of the tested and calculated grinding force ratio in the case of as follows:
agmax=1 µm.
dFfr , t = dFfr sin β (13)

55
C. Dai et al. International Journal of Machine Tools & Manufacture 113 (2017) 49–58

16 16
12 12
8 8
4

Height Z/ μm
4
Height Z/ μm

0 0
-4 -4
-8 -8
-12 -12
-16 -16
-20 -20
-24 -24
100 200 300 400 500 600 100 200 300 400 500 600
Width Y/ μm Width Y/ μm
(a) agmax=0.2 μm, ΔV’=2.72 mm3/mm (b) agmax=0.2 μm, ΔV’=25.84 mm3/mm

y
op
30 30

20 20

C
Height Z/ μm
Height Z/ μm

10 10

's
0 0

or
-10 -10

-20 -20
th
-30 -30
Au
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 100 200 300 400 500 600
Width Y/ μm Width Y/ μm
(c) agmax=0.5 μm, ΔV’=2.8 mm3/mm (d) agmax=0.5 μm, ΔV’=22.2 mm3/mm
y

20 20
op

15 15
10 10
Height Z/ μm

5
C
Height Z/ μm

5
0 0
's

-5 -5
-10 -10
or

-15 -15
-20
th

-20
-25 -25
0 100 200 300 400 500 600
Au

0 100 200 300 400 500 600

Width Y/ μm Width Y/ μm
(e) agmax=1 μm, ΔV’=2.88 mm3/mm (f) agmax=1 μm, ΔV’=29.52 mm3/mm
Fig. 16. Influence of gain wear behavior on cross-section profiles.

a
dFfr , n = dFfr cos β (14) 2
Ftg = ∫− a dFtg = Fp aag (cos β + μ sin β )
2 (17)
Finally, by combining the component forces, the tangential and
a
normal forces on the sampling unit of a single grain are calculated as: 2
Fng = ∫− a dFng = Fp aag (sin β − μ cos β )
2 (18)
dFtg = dFx, t + dFfr , t = (cos β + μ sin β ) Fp ag dy (15)
Commonly, the grinding force ratio ε is used to reflect whether a
grain is blunt or not. From the given grinding force model in this
dFng = dFx, n − dFfr , n = (sin β − μ cos β ) Fp ag dy (16)
article, it can be calculated as:
Thus, considering that the actual load width of a single grain is a, sin β − μ cos β tan β − μ
ε = Fng / Ftg = =
the total grinding force on the whole grain is integrated as: cos β + μ sin β 1 + μ tan β (19)

56
C. Dai et al.
Au
Fig. 17. Relation between pile-up ratio and rake face wear.
y
which can be further rewritten as:
op
1 μ2 + 1
ε= − the given UCT values: a larger UCT value results in less amount of
μ μ (1 + μ tan β ) (20)
C
According to Eq. (20), it is obvious that, with the increase of the
negative rake angle β, the grinding force ratio ε is getting larger. In
other words, a diamond grain is becoming blunt due to the grain wear
's
behavior on the rake face. The calculated grinding force ratio in case of
agmax=1 µm under the condition of negative rake angle ranging from
or
51.5 to 60.5° are provided in Fig. 15. Obviously, the calculated results
match very well with the tested data in an error less than 5%. During
the increasing of SMRV from 6.8 to 21.84 mm3/mm, the measured
th
negative rake angles are 51.8°, 54°, 57°, 59° and 60.6°, while the
corresponding calculated grinding force ratio are 0.8, 0.87, 0.97, 1.04
Au
and 1.1, compared with tested values of 0.83, 0.9, 1.05, 1.05 and 1.16.
3.5. Influence of grain wear behavior on material removal process
In Section 3.1, the chip formation characteristics are discussed in
the grain wear-free status. However, the material removal ability has
decreased due to the attritious wear. In order to further investigate the
influence of grain wear behavior on material removal process, the
cross-section profiles of the scratch marks are obtained in different
grain wear stages first; and then the pile-up ratio are discussed
according to the increasing SMRV.
The cross-section profiles in various single grain grinding condi-
tions are shown in Fig. 16. Obviously, as expected, due to the blunt of a
single grain, there is a clear tendency of large material pile-up
manifested as pronounced higher and wider shoulders for all the
UCT values, accompanied with a large groove width, thus constituting
57
International Journal of Machine Tools & Manufacture 113 (2017) 49–58
y
op
C
's
or
th
an extent of material rebuild rather than removal. Nevertheless,
distinctly different material pile-up characteristics are produced at
material pile-up in the sharp grain condition (Fig. 16(a), (c) and (e));
that is likely due to a longer period of cutting stage, rather than rubbing
and ploughing stages at UCT values of 0.5 and 1 µm, to cut the material
across the whole cross-section resulting in minor material rebuild.
Furthermore, it is noticed from Fig. 16(b), (d) and (e) that, the
shape of the scratch cross-section bottom changes from a line to an
irregular curve or an arc due to the wear of cutting edge. The reason
can be interpreted from two aspects: one is the grain fracture caused by
the spring-back effect of material elastic deformation in the rubbing
and ploughing stages, e.g. at the UCT values of 0.2 and 0.5 µm; the
other is the abrasion at the two corners of the cutting edge due to stress
concentration, e.g. at the UCT values of 0.5 and 1 µm. In addition,
when a grain has been seriously worn, the pile-up area is bulk in case of
a bigger value of UCT. That is because of the regenerated multi cutting
edges caused by grain fracture at UCT of 0.2 µm, which facilities to cut
the material more efficiently and results in narrow scratch shoulders.
However, compared with multi cutting edges, the cutting efficiency in
the case of abrasion at the two corners of the initial cutting edge is low
that the pile-up shoulders exhibits a little fat-wide.
The pile-up ratio at various increasing SMRVs are calculated, so as
the measured widths of new rake face and crescent depression. As
shown in Fig. 17(a), when the grinding process mainly consists of
rubbing and ploughing stages, the pile-up ratio varies nearly in the
same tendency as the width of new rake face, and this trend results
from the growing length of grain-workpiece contact zone on the rake
face. Thus, bulk material rebuild and minor material removal occur.
However, according to the decreased pile-up ratio, it is known that the
regenerated multi cutting edges due to grain fracture at SMRV of
C. Dai et al.
8 mm3/mm can improve the material removal ability.
On the other hand, as shown in Fig. 17(b) and (c), the cutting stage
dominates in grinding. The pile-up ratio is increased because of the
increase of crescent depression on the rake face. It is noted that, the
pile-up ratio increases rapidly when the width of the crescent depres-
sion is diminished (e.g. in the range of SMRV from 8 to 15 mm3/mm in
case of UCT of 0.5 µm; from 14 to 22 mm3/mm in case of UCT of
1 µm). This is due to the increasing negative rake angle in the absence
of crescent depression, as a result of lower MMR and enlarged grinding
force ratio. Furthermore, when the pile-up ratio reaches about 0.33, the
grain wear is expanded from rake face to the two corners of the cutting
edge because of the enlarged scratch shoulders. At this time, the
material removal behavior improves a bit due to the better material
flowing ability around the corners.
Besides, it could also be found that, before the material removal
efficiency decreases obviously, the value of SMRV for high material
removal efficiency (Rs < 0.1) is increased with a bigger UCT (i.e. 5, 11,
and 15 mm3/mm in case of 0.2, 0.5 and 1 µm, respectively), which is
attributed to a lower grain wear rate using relatively larger UCT as
mentioned in Section 3.3.
4. Conclusions
The influence of grain wear on material removal behavior has been
discussed by the means of the single grain grinding operation on
nickel-based superalloy Inconel 718. The key findings can be summar-
ized as follows:
(1) In the case of grain wear-free, a critical value of UCT about 0.3 µm
is identified through the analysis of pile-up ratio which is used for
quantifying the material removal process. The grinding force and
Au
specific grinding energy in the single grain grinding greatly obey
the size effect rule.
(2) The grain wear behavior mainly shows as four types: crescent
depression on the rake face, abrasion on the flank face, rain micro-
y
fracture, and grain macro-fracture. The dwell time of rubbing,
ploughing and cutting at different UCT values determines the grain
op
wear types.
(3) According to the constructed grinding force model, it is the
increasing negative rake angle that enlarges the grinding force
C
ratio, which lowers the material removal ability.
(4) During the single grain grinding, the material removal efficiency is
proportional to the wear width on the grain rake face in rubbing
's
and ploughing stages. However, it is diminished in the absence of
crescent depression in cutting stage. At the same time, the grain
or
fracture and abrasion of cutting edge corners can improve the
material removal to a certain extent.
th
Acknowledgments
Au
The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support for this
work by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos.
51235004 and 51375235), the Fundamental Research Funds for the
Central Universities (No. NE2014103).
58
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International Journal of Machine Tools & Manufacture 113 (2017) 49–58
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