Thermal model for surface grinding application

Due to the characteristics of the grinding process, thermal damage may occur in the workpiece surface, resulting in the rejection of a component and considerably increasing the production costs. This study aims to analyze the heat fluxes, energy partition, and temperatures during surface grinding process with both conventional and MQL lubrication. Through the proposed analysis, the heat fluxes and maximum temperature can be predicted, enabling the avoidance of thermal damages and increasing the efficiency of the process. A comparison between the calculated and experimental value has shown that the difference is acceptable for various situations, in the order of 4.72% for the conventional method and 7.38% for the MQL method. A thermal model was developed. The transient two-dimensional heat diffusion equation was discretized by finite volume method in space and explicit discretized in time. The heat fluxes were estimated using inverse problem technique of heat transfer aiming the obtainment of the temperature of certain workpiece points. A comparison of the methods of lubrication showed that the conventional method was way more efficient than MQL, presenting considerably lower total heat flux and maximum reached temperature and any kind of thermal damage wasn’t observed. On the other hand, thermal damage occurred in the workpieces. Also, clogging phenomenon in the grinding wheel surface after the process in MQL condition was observed.