Modeling and predicting surface roughness of the grinding process

A new method for predicting the surface roughness of the workpiece for the grinding process is developed in this paper. The conventional method determines the surface roughness based on the model using the mean value of the grain protrusion heights, which leads to a formula. However, the analytical value based on the formula is substantially smaller than measurement. To overcome this problem, the proposed method takes into consideration the random distribution of the grain protrusion heights. As such, there is no formula, and a numerical solution is developed. To solve this problem. first the intersecting points of any two grains with different heights are determined. To determine the final profile considering thousands of the grains, a search method is developed to systematically solve the workpiece profile. starting with the highest protruded grain in a descending order of the grain protrusion heights. Further-more, a truncated Gaussian distribution model is developed to relate the wheel volume wear to the change in the mean value of the protrusion heights. Simulation shows that the proposed method yields the results that are consistent with measurement. thereby proving the effectiveness of the method. (C) 2002 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.