Grinding behavior of biomimetic fractal-branched silicon carbide ceramic inspired from leaf-vein structure

Abstract

Silicon carbide ceramics are widely used in many industrial fields owing to their outstanding physical and chemical characteristics. However, their inherent hardness and brittleness make the grinding process very difficult compared to that involving ductile materials. In the present study, the effects of the biomimetic fractal-branched structure, inspired from the leaf-vein, on the grinding behavior of silicon carbide were investigated. Two biomimetic fractal-branched structures with different densities of micro-channels were designed and compared with the non-structured silicon carbide surface. The surface of the silicon carbide ceramic was textured through pulsed-laser ablation. Thereafter, the grinding experiment was conducted on the biomimetic fractal-branched and non-structured workpieces. The surface topography, subsurface damage, grinding force, grinding force ratio, surface roughness and grinding wheel wear were examined throughout the experiment. The experimental results indicated that the normal and tangential grinding forces for the fractal-branched structure surface are 7.61–18.21% and 8.34–26.13% lower than those for the non-structured surface. The grinding force ratio also increased significantly with an increase in the micro-channel density. In addition, a larger volume of coolant was transported through the grinding zone of the fractal-branched structure. The research results confirmed that the biomimetic fractal-branched structure on the silicon carbide surface enhanced the grinding performance and improved the grinding quality.