Effects of the grinding conditions on geometry of microstructured surfaces fabricated via designed precision grinding

Abstract

Precision grinding is a promising method for machining microstructured surfaces. Controlling microstructured surface geometries provides interesting insights into the optimisation of their usage based on the application fields. This requires an understanding of the effects of the factors influencing the grinding process. The effects of the designed process parameters on the geometries of microstructured surfaces machined using precision grinding is investigated herein. The investigated parameters include the velocity ratio between the workpiece feed rate and wheel cutting velocity, in addition to the grinding depth of cut. First, a mathematical model is developed to correlate the designed grinding parameters and the resultant geometry of the ground microstructured surfaces; furthermore, the geometrical parameters of the surface microstructures are defined. Subsequently, an algorithm and a simulation method are used to illustrate the change in the microstructure geometries with varying operating parameters. Subsequently, precision grinding experiments under various conditions are performed on the surfaces of TC4 titanium alloys for experimental investigations. The obtained microstructure geometries are analysed and compared with those predicted via simulation. The results confirmed the accuracy and ability of proposed strategy in designing and machining the microstructured surfaces with controlled geometry via precision grinding. Finally, the behaviour of the geometrical parameters of the microstructured surfaces based on the investigated operating parameters is discussed.