Predicting the Material Removal in Polishing: The Applicability of Two Types of Statistical Models

Abstract

This article develops two statistical rough surface models to investigate the material removal rate in surface polishing. Model I implies that the contact between two surfaces is equivalent to that between a composite surface and a plane; but Model II is without the equivalent surface concept. The prediction differences of the two models were first investigated with the aid of contact mechanics. The analysis shows that the relative error of the predictions by the two models could be minimized by considering the interactions between asperities, and that this error increases with the separation of the mean planes, but decreases with the asperity density, asperity radius and standard deviation of the asperity height. By extending the models to study the material removal rate in polishing, it was found that asperity interaction is an important factor in a statistical modelling of polishing, and that with a given separation of the reference planes of the pad and workpiece surfaces, the material removal rate increases with the volume concentration of abrasive particles and varies with the pad roughness. The study also showed that the microstructure of a polishing pad has a significant effect on the material removal rate of a polishing.