Thermal deformation simulation for an internal grinding cirque by finite element method

An implicit finite-element code is employed to study the internal grinding process of carbon steel Q235 cirque, and its temperature field and thermal deformation are obtained. The method of thermal load calculation is proposed, a 2D finite element model is developed, and analysis steps are introduced. The diameter of the cirque is 150 mm and that of the inner hole is 56.24 mm. By adopting the clamps of surface locating and three-jaw chuck, it is found that, during the grinding process, the workpiece is in an elastic–plastic state, far from thermal-softening state. The thermal deformation of the ground cirque is basically symmetrical in a diamond shape, but the deformations of the inner circle and the outer circle are not uniform, and the inner circle thermal deformation may be negative or positive. Such different thermal displacements will produce shape error and dimension error in the inner hole. Through comparison of the two clamping modes, it is found that the precision of the surface locating is better than the three-jaw chuck. The symmetrical property of the thermal deformation of the cirque and the comparison of two clamping modes indicate that the computation is valid.