Modeling and experimental study of the force and surface topography in cylindrical grinding of GH4169

GH4169 superalloy is an outstanding material used in aerospace, and precision grinding is widely applied to machine GH4169 superalloy, where the grinding force plays essential role on the ground surface quality and the achieved surface topography. In this paper, the material removal mechanism under different machining parameters is analyzed in cylindrical grinding of GH4169 superalloy. The interaction process between abrasive grain and workpiece material is investigated to establish the simulation model of material removed based on the kinematics. The random wheel topography is constructed statistically using the probability density function that characterizes the distribution of the grains. The simulated grinding force and surface topography are in good agreement with the experimental results. Specifically, the errors of the tangential and normal grinding force are 5.33% and 6.33% and the errors of the roughness Sa and Sz are 5.51% and 7.40%, respectively. Based on the simulation model and calculation results, the machining parameters are optimized for cylindrical grinding of GH4169 (vs = 45 m/s, f = 150 mm/min, ap = 3 mu m, vw = 0.262 m/s) to improve the achieved surface quality.