Surface characterization of zirconia ceramics in ultrasonic vibration-assisted grinding

In order to clarify the surface features of zirconia ceramics fabricated by ultrasonic vibration-assisted grinding (UVAG), five geometric parameters (width dw, depth hd, length ld, spacing df and number N) of UVAG surface are selected to characterize UVAG surface topography. In this study, firstly, the mathematic modeling between five geometric parameters and grinding parameters (spindle speed, feed rate, cutting depth and power ratio) is revealed considering the overlapping of entire grains on the end face of tool. The expected value of center-to-center distance between two successive grooves, k0, k1, k2, k3 and k4 are introduced to consider the effect of overlapping. Besides, the experiments of UVAG on zirconia ceramics are carried out to verify the theoretical values of width dw, depth hd, length ld, spacing df and number N. Finally, it is found that the theoretical values and experimental values are well consistent with each other. Therefore, this mathematic modeling can be applied to characterize surface topography in UVAG of zirconia ceramics.