MODELING AND SIMULATION OF WORKPIECE TEMPERATURE IN GRINDING BY FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS

The quality of ground workpieces is largely determined by the accuracy of dimensions and geometry, and by the surface finish. The thermal stress to which workpieces are subjected during the grinding process, characterized by the temperatures that develop, plays a major role as far as the economical fulfillment of high-quality requirements is concerned. Too high thermal stresses have a deleterious effect on the workpiece, leading to changes in specific service characteristics. This paper predominantly concerns experiments to determine the temperature when grinding cemented carbides. In this context, the temperature fields developing in the workpiece were examined for different grinding conditions, both on the basis of experiments and calculations by means of finite element analysis (FEA). The simulations show a rise in surface temperatures in the workpiece from the run-in to the run-out phase of the grinding process. The analysis indicates that the-grinding process gives rise to an inho-mogeneous distribution of the material properties of the workpiece, along the grinding direction.