Experiment and Simulation of Liquid Film Flow Driving Abrasive Particle Dispersion on the Surface of a Rotating Disk

Abstract

Controlling the distribution of the abrasive grains on the surface of the grinding tools in an appropriate way is important for improving the quality of grinding processing and meeting the workpiece precision requirements. In the present study, a novel method for the orderly arrangement of abrasive particles is proposed by using the liquid film flow on the surface of the rotating disk as the driving and controlling means for the uniform dispersion and position arrangement of abrasive particles. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations have been performed to clearly illustrate the trajectories of abrasive particles under the strong influence of liquid film flow on the rotating disk and reveal the effects of fluid flow, disk rotational motion, and the mixture viscosity on the particle distribution. A new abrasive grain arrangement device is designed and fabricated using this novel method. The operating parameters such as liquid volume flow rate, disk rotational speed, and liquid viscosity are adjusted to control the placement of abrasive grains on the surface of the grinding tool. An image processing tool is used to examine and analyze the arrangement results. The experimental results indicated that the application of the liquid film flow on a rotating disk to the abrasive grain arrangement can improve the arrangement of abrasive grains and get rid of the dependence on the template.