Titanium and its alloys are well known for their difficult machinability nature. Because of Ti-6Al-4V alloy's strong chemical affinity, high temperature and pressure during the grinding process, the formed chips easily weld onto the grinding wheel surface. This phenomenon reduces the wheel life and diminish the surface quality. To control the effect of temperature, most grinding operations today employ cutting fluids. These fluids help in improving the surface quality and increasing the wheel life. However, because of environmental and economic concerns, industries are now looking for sustainable alternative cooling techniques such as cryogenic cooling. The aim of this study is to present the application of liquid nitrogen cryogenic cooling as an alternative cooling technique for grinding Ti-6Al-4V alloys. To compare the effect of cryogenic condition, experiments were conducted under both dry and wet (soluble oil) conditions. Experimental results proved the effectiveness of cryogenic cooling in reducing the grinding force, obtaining better surface finish, and being less damaging to the surface condition. Finally, multiple regression models were developed to predict the normal force and tangential force in cryogenic condition. The developed models have been validated with experimental data, and the maximum prediction error of the model for normal and tangential forces was less than 12% and 9%, respectively.
Difficulties in the grinding of Ti-6Al-4V originate from the three basic properties: poor thermal conductivity, high chemical reactivity and low volume specific heat of the material. Under severe grinding conditions, all these factors together lead to the accelerated wheel loading and redeposition of chips over the work surface. Redeposition and wheel loading have a significant effect on the surface finish, grinding forces, power consumption and wheel life. In this study, waterbased Al 2 O 3 nanofluid as metalworking fluid is applied during the surface grinding of Ti-6Al-4V under minimum quantity lubrication mode after dressing the wheel with different dressing overlap ratios. The severity of the redeposition over the work surface was observed by measuring various surface profiles taken perpendicular to the grinding direction at several locations on the ground surface. The nanofluid application was able to prevent redeposition over work surface that became evident from the measured surface finish parameters that results along the grinding direction. Coefficient of friction was estimated On-Machine using the measured forces for different wheel work speed ratios, depth of cut and dressing overlap ratios. The results showed the effectiveness of nanofluid in reducing friction at high material removal rate (i.e. high depth of cut and high speed ratio) conditions when compared to the dry environment. From the measured forces variation with respect to the number of passes, it became evident that, nanofluid application delayed the frequency of wheel loading and grit fracturing cycle, which leads to the increase in the wheel life.
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