During the grinding of a brittle material, the material from the workpiece is mainly removed by two general principles. When a grain on the grinding wheel comes into contact with the workpiece, a chip from the workpiece is formed. This formation can be in either a ductile mode or brittle mode. Ductile mode, which is also known as a quasiplastic cutting mechanism, is preferred over the brittle mode. During the ductile mode, the chip formation result in grooves with no cracks, giving the grooves a smoother surface profile. On the other hand, brittle mode, which can be referred to as microbrittle mode, is not preferred. In this mode, the grooves created affect the surrounding area, forming surface fractures and cracks. These cracks can be one or more of the following types of cracks: lateral, radial, or median cracks. Some other cracks have also been reported, such as fork, branch, and chevron [13]. In a case of a brittle mode removal, a careful choice or modification of grinding parameters can turn this grinding process into the desirable ductile mode [10]. A stage in-between is called the brittle-ductile mode, semiductile mode, or partial-ductile mode [14]. In this mode, the material is removed at brittle mode and does not affect the material by forming advanced cracks underneath the material workpiece surface. Still, at this stage, the surface of the workpiece reaches the limits of high surface stresses. In order to reach this stage and not exceed it into brittle mode requires a careful choice of grinding parameters. A laser-assist can be used to preheat the surface of the workpiece before it enters the grinding process. This process helps reduce any brittle mode material removal and enhance the surface quality and roughness of the machined workpiece [10]. If the workpiece machining was in the brittle mode, this will produce a fractured surface that requires additional machining processes of lapping and polishing. Nonetheless, if the properties have been changed accordingly so that the machining process was in the semiductile mode, the surface of the workpiece will be partially fractured; thus, it will need direct polishing only. When we control the machining flawlessly so that the grinding is performed in the ductile mode, the finished workpiece material will undergo little or no polishing process [15].
It has been reported that the depth of cracks can be predicted. The experiment of the prediction involves grinding of a silicon wafer machined by a diamond grinding wheel. The depth of the crack is approximately half the grain size of the diamond grinding wheel. So it can be observed that smaller grain sizes have better surface finish quality [13].
Figure 9.1shows the most commonly identified cracks that can occur during the brittle-mode cutting. Radial and lateral cracks are not as bad as a median crack. They both can increase the material removal rate and can be monitored. The median crack is critical, because it is more likely to be responsible for the failure of machinery parts in the industry when they propagate. The problem is that this crack is hidden under the surface and can be difficult to locate.
Figure 9.1.
Radial, lateral, and median cracks [16].
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In grinding, each grain works individually to scratch the surface of the workpiece. The continuation of fast small scratches on the surface results in a material removal from the workpiece. For better removal rate, the scratches from the grains should be close to each other. One of the many factors that the scratching process depends on is the length of the tip of the abrasive grain, as well as how deep the plastic deformation applied on the workpiece is. Load and tip radius are other factors that affect the scratching on the workpiece. Inappropriate choice of these factors leads to undesirable scratches, which in turn lead to entering the brittle mode with either lateral or radial cracks, or both [17]. Finishing a workpiece by ductile mode with no surface fractures gives a great smooth workpiece surface that does not need any additional processes such as lapping or polishing. In order to achieve that, the depth of cut should be small so that only nanoparticles are removed, depending on the workpiece material properties. The energy required for removing a certain volume from a workpiece while in ductile mode is [18]:
equation(9.1)
Ep=HVp
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Where Vp is the volume and H is the hardness. However, the energy required for removing material in the brittle mode is [18]:
equation(9.2)
Ef=δAf
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Where Af is the fractured area, and δ is the crack surface energy per unit area. The hardness and δ are typically the same for some materials. The estimated relationship of critical depth of cut for brittle materials with other parameters that cannot be exceeded to be in the free fracture ductile mode is [19]:
equation(9.3)
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Where dc is the critical depth of cut, E is Young’s modulus, and Kc is the fracture toughness. By adding a constant to the formula so it can be more useful [10]:
equation(9.3a)
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Therefore, the maximum grit depth of cut or chip thickness should be less than the critical depth of cut [20]:
equation(9.4)
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Where Ls is the distance between the adjacent grits, Vw is the work speed (rpm), Vc is the peripheral wheel speed (rpm), ae is the wheel depth of cut (μm), and ds is the diameter of the wheel (mm).
Though difficult to evaluate, the crack length can be calculated from equation (9.5)[9]:
equation(9.5)
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Where ψ is the indenter angle, and Fi is the indenter load. Then the estimated critical force applied before a crack forms is [9]:
equation(9.6)
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Where ϖ is a constant that depends on the indenter geometry, which can lead to calculate the depth of the indenter as [21]:
equation(9.7)
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However, the maximum chip thickness on ELID grinding, which will be explained in detail later, is disturbed by the bond strength of the grinding wheel. Consequently, it can be written as [19]:
equation(9.8)
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Where k is the ELID dressing constant that is proportional to the input power, voltage, and current duty ratio:
k∝Ip,V,Rc
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With the help of these expressions, the holding and grinding forces for a single grit can be obtained as [19]:
equation(9.9)
fh=k1sσag
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equation(9.10)
fg=k2Shmax
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Where fh is the holding force, k1 a constant related to the wheel topography, σs is the yield strength of the layer, ag is the holding area of grit, fg is the grinding force, k2 is a constant related to the material properties, and S is the sharpness factor.
With knowing the approximate number of grits per unit area, we can evaluate the total holding force as [19]:
equation(9.11)
Fh=NfhAg
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Where Fh is the total holding force, N is the number of grits per unit area, fh is the holding force per grit, andAg is the grinding area (mm).
Furthermore, the total normal and tangential force can be anticipated from resolving the force per grit:
equation(9.12)
Fn=NnαfgAg
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equation(9.13)
Ft=NtβfgAg
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Where αn is the normal force component of fg, and βt is the tangential force component of fg [19].
The normal force can be obtained also from its relationship with the actual depth of cut (ADOC) [22].
equation(9.14)
Fn=F0+Cada
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Where F0 is the break-in force while ADOC is zero, Ca is a constant that depends on grinding conditions, andda is the ADOC, which can be expressed in terms of the number of grinding passes. For the ith pass, the ADOC is [20]:
equation(9.15)
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Where d0 is the wheel ADOC, kw is the cutting stiffness, and ks is the machine stiffness. By substituting the equation in the normal force equation, the normal force can be realized after the ith pass as [22]:
equation(9.16)
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This equation shows that with time and increasing the number of passes, the normal forces should stabilize and become constant. The same is true with increasing the number of passes, [kw/(kw+ks)] becomes zero for kw and ks, not negative, which will make the final normal force when its becoming constant as:
equation(9.17)
Fn=F0+Cada
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As F0, Ca, and da are constant for individual grinding conditions [22].