Theoretical and experimental study of temperature field in noncircular high-speed grinding

A study of a noncircular workpiece grinding mechanism for improving the quality of noncircular grinding was conducted. By combining the principle of heat transfer, the geometry, and the kinematics in the high-speed grinding of noncircular workpiece, a variable heat flow distribution model was developed to evaluate the temperature field. Through a reasonable hypothesis and simplification, a three-dimensional (3D) finite element (FE) simulation model was established based on the variable heat source distribution model. The temperature field in the workpiece was simulated with a 3D transient thermal FE code. The grinding temperature test platform using an infrared thermal imager was established. Experimental results were compared with the results of a simulation; the comparison results showed that the temperature field obtained from ANSYS and the infrared thermal imager were nearly identical, the maximum error was 5.91%, and the simulation results truly reflected noncircular high-speed grinding heat conditions. Based on the analysis of experimental and simulation results, the influence of grinding process parameters on the grinding temperature in high-speed grinding of the noncircular workpiece was revealed. This work should be helpful in solving the problem of thermal damage on the surface of noncircular workpieces during high-speed grinding.