A variable heat flux model of heat transfer in grinding: Model development

In any grinding process, thermal damage is one of the main limitations to accelerating the completion of the product while maintaining high quality. Therefore, the objective of the present study is to understand the thermal behavior in the grinding process and possibly achieve the ultimate goal of avoiding thermal damage in the grinding process. A model previously developed is improved to analyze the heat transfer mechanisms in the grinding process. Heat generated at the interface between the abrasive grains and workpiece (i.e., the wear flat area) is considered. A conjugate heat transfer problem is then solved to predict the temperature in the grinding zone. In the previous model, all the heat fluxes were assumed to be uniformly distributed along the grinding zone. This led to a contradiction in the temperature matching condition. This reveals that the heat fluxes into each of the various materials are not uniform along the grinding zone. An improved model, accounting for the variation of the heat fluxes along the grinding zone, is presented. The temperature and heat flux distributions along the grinding zone are presented, along with comparisons to previous theoretical results.