Wear characteristics of white corundum abrasive wheel in ultrasonic vibration-assisted grinding of AISI 9310 steel

Ultrasonic vibration-assisted grinding has been employed in machining difficult-to-cut materials (e.g. titanium alloys, superalloys, composites, hardened steels, etc.) aiming at improving wear-resistance abilities of abrasive wheels. In this paper, comparative experiments between the conventional grinding (CG) and ultrasonic vibration-assisted grinding (UVAG) were performed on AISI 9310 steel to study grain wear mechanisms. Results shows that UVAG achieves a significant reduction in grinding forces, force ratio and machined quality as material removal volumes raise. Moreover, the wear flat of grains and a sharp change in grinding forces occur. Then, the surface quality gradually deteriorates from the more severe chip clogging of wheels and increasing grinding forces during the CG process. Meanwhile, the steady wear stage of UVAG is longer by 23.07%, and the ground surface roughness in UVAG remain lower and more stably fluctuating than those in CG. Furthermore, UVAG possesses a small fluctuating height of worn grains according to the analysis of the protrusion height distribution at various wear stages, owing to the consistent micro-fractures of the grains under uniform alternating loads. In contrast, pull-out defects can be observed under high grinding forces on the tool-workpiece intersection during the CG process, affecting the ground surface quality.