behavior

1. Wear 254 (2003) 1294–1298
Characterization of abrasive grain’s behavior and wear mechanisms
H. Hamdi∗ , M. Dursapt, H. Zahouani
Laboratoire de Tribologie et Dynamique des Systèmes, UMR 5513 CNRS/ECL/ENISE, 58 rue Jean Parot, 42023 Saint-Etienne Cedex 2, France
Received 7 September 2002; received in revised form 16 January 2003; accepted 13 February 2003
Abstract
Grinding is a finishing process largely used in motor industry, aeronautics, space industry and precision cutting tool manufacturers.
The grinding process can be summarized by the action of a grinding wheel on a workpiece. The wheel is constituted by abrasive grains.
Thus grinding is in fact the action of grains on the workpiece. The grain behavior changes according to numerous parameters (geometry,
mechanical characteristics, wear mechanisms). In some cases abrasive wear is observed while micro-cutting is obtained in some other cases.
In this paper two useful and complementary experimental approaches for the interface physics understanding is presented. The study of
the cutting power is carried out using a high-speed scratch test device in order to understand the grain behavior and the wear mechanisms
for several wheel surface speeds. In this paper an approach for the specific abrasion energy computation is also presented.
© 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Abrasion; Wear mechanisms; Scratch test; Cutting physics; Surface morphology
1. Introduction only one blue corundum grain (Figs. 1 and 2). The shape
of the corundum grain could be seen in Fig. 2 and the size
The grinding process is widely used in motor industry, could be determined using the same figure. The testing char-
aeronautics, space industry and precision cutting tool man- acteristics are the following: the scratch velocity Vs is about
ufacturers. This process is largely studied during the last 20 37.3 m s−1 for a grinding wheel diameter equal to 250 mm
years [1–4] but the understanding of the physical phenom- and a rotation speed about 2850 rpm, the feed speed Vw is
ena in the interface wheel–workpiece is not completed. about 30 m min−1 and finally the depth of cut is imposed
In this paper two useful and complementary experimental and equal to 20 ␮m. The grain have a rotation and a trans-
approaches for the interface physics understanding is pre- lation movement. So, the expected result is a succession of
sented. One is realized on a testing grinder fitted out with scratches on the workpiece (Fig. 3).
forces sensors and using a grinding wheel with only one During the test, the normal and tangential forces are
grain. The grain behavior is studied by analyzing the spe- recorded by the way of a piezoelectric dynamometer KisTler
cific abrasion energy. Moreover, the study of the scratches 5257A (Fig. 1). The sample is a quench bearing steel (AISI
obtained on the workpiece gives some qualitative infor- 52100, 62 HRC).
mation about the abrasive wear or the metal cutting. The
results obtained are compared with those given by the scle-
2.2. Scratch analysis
rometer for low scratch speed. For both experimentation
the specific abrasion energy is computed from the dynamic The scratch morphology given in Fig. 4 is obtained by
tangential force measurement and the analysis of the scratch means of a tactile profilemeter and analyzed with the Topo-
topography. Surf image processing software. From the scratch morphol-
ogy lots of qualitative information or explanation could be
2. High-speed scratch test extracted.
First, the scratch morphology shows that one grain induces
2.1. Principle
several manufacturing scratches, three in our case (Fig. 4).
The principle of the high-speed scratch test is illustrated So, the first conclusion is that one grain is not only consti-
in Fig. 1. The specific grinding wheel used is equipped with tuted by one cutting edge like it was found in the past [5].
In our case, there are three or more active cutting edges as
∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +33-4-77438434; fax: +33-4-77438499. the manufacturing scratches MS1 , MS2 and MS3 could have
E-mail address: hamdi@enise.fr (H. Hamdi). illustrated it (Fig. 4).
0043-1648/$ – see front matter © 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/S0043-1648(03)00158-3

2. H. Hamdi et al. / Wear 254 (2003) 1294–1298 1295
Fig. 1. High-speed scratch test.
Fig. 4. Scratch morphology.
is clear that the lateral rolls are virtually non-existent for
the whole length of the scratch. Moreover MS1 is manufac-
tured by the highest cutting edge of the grain (Fig. 2). This
shows that for this cutting edge it seems that metal cutting
occurs while for the other one abrasive wear and plowing
seems to have happened. In fact, the study of the physical
phenomena of the metal cutting must take into account the
grain topography (Fig. 2) and an abrasive grain has sev-
eral cutting edges and not only one as it was suggested in
the literature [5]. From the scratch analysis (Fig. 4) and the
phenomena interpretations, the concept of minimum chip
as it is widely explained for other machining process like
turning or milling could be introduced in the abrasive grain
scale.
The study of the shape of the scratch gives some other
interesting information. In fact, if the theoretical trajectory
of the grain [6] and the experimental measurement of the
scratch shape are compared, the way the material move in the
Fig. 2. Grain topography. vertical direction could be qualitatively understood (Fig. 6).
The theoretical depth of the scratch is greater than the ex-
perimental one like it could be observed in Fig. 6. So, during
The frontal roll present at the end of the scratch (Fig. 4)
the scratch test there is probably an elastic strain of the ma-
is in fact a chip which is not ejected from the workpiece.
Moreover, lateral rolls are observed in some area of the
scratch. So, during the scratch test there is a lateral flow
of the material as it could be expected. This lateral flow of
the material is more important in some area of the scratch
and in some other it is unobserved as it is illustrated on
the extracted transversal profile (Fig. 5). If the manufactur-
ing scratch MS1 is particularly studied (Figs. 4 and 5), it
Fig. 3. Succession of scratches on the workpiece. Fig. 5. Transversal profile extracted from the scratch (Fig. 4).

3. 1296 H. Hamdi et al. / Wear 254 (2003) 1294–1298
Fig. 9. The principle of the sclerometer.
a numerical integration must be performed to compute the
specific abrasive energy.
Let W denote the mechanical energy given by the follow-
Fig. 6. Superposition of the theoretical and experimental trajectory. ing equation:
1
W= Ft (x) dx (2)
0
The scratch length l is equal to 5 mm in our case (Fig. 4). So
5
W= Ft (x) dx = 85.34 × 10−3 J (3)
0
And finally the specific abrasive energy is equal to
W
Es = = 15.86 J mm−3 (4)
Fig. 7. Background of the chip. Ve
The present result must be confronted to the result obtained
terial in front of the cutting edge. Then when the mechani- with the sclerometer exposed in the sequel.
cal stresses are higher, a part of the material gets round the
grain in the lateral (lateral roll, Fig. 4) and/or vertical way,
the rest results in a chip (Fig. 7) [6]. 3. Standard scratch test: sclerometer
2.3. Specific abrasive energy 3.1. Principle
The specific abrasive energy Es is the energy needed to The sclerometer principle [6,7] is illustrated in Fig. 9. The
removed a volume of material. This quantity is widely used aim is to score a surface with an indenter. A normal force
by abrasive manufacture to qualify the grain behavior. It is Fn = 20 N and a displacement are imposed to the indenter.
computed using Eq. (1) [6,7]: The tangential force Ft is measured by a piezoelectric sensor
l during the test. The scratch velocity in this case is equal to
0 Ft (x) dx 0.3 mm s−1 while for the high-speed scratch test it is equal
Es = (1)
Ve to 37.3 m s−1 . So, the influence of the scratch velocity could
be studied.
where Ft is the tangential force (N), Ve the material volume
Like for the high-speed scratch test the indenter is a blue
removed (m3 ), and l the length of the scratch (m).
corundum grain and the workpiece is a quench bearing steel
In the case of this present study the material volume re-
(AISI 52100).
moved Ve , in the above experimental condition, is estab-
lished using the TopoSurf image processing software and is
3.2. Scratch analysis
equal to Ve = 5.38 × 10−3 mm3 (Fig. 4).
The acquired tangential force (Fig. 8) is not constant. So,
Figs. 10 and 11 show that in the case of the standard
scratch test the lateral rolls are less marked as compared to
those obtained in a high-speed scratch test. The differences
between the two experiments is first the velocity and second
the trajectory. Do those differences influence the metal cut-
ting physic? Any response could be given with the present
scratch analysis.
Like it is previously noticed, the scratch in the sclerometer
test is constituted by several manufacturing scratches too.
Fig. 8. Tangential force for the high-speed scratch test. So, the grain have several cutting edges.

4. H. Hamdi et al. / Wear 254 (2003) 1294–1298 1297
Fig. 12. Tangential force in the sclerometer test.
The volume of the material removed is equal to Ve = 1.34×
10−4 mm3 , so the specific abrasive energy is equal to Es =
52.23 J mm−3 .
4. Discussion
Fig. 10. Sclerometer scratch morphology.
In Table 1, it is observed that the specific abrasion en-
ergy decreases when the scratch speed increases. Such anal-
ysis could involve some mistakes and could lead to some
conclusions like the scratch velocity influence the physical
phenomena as the metal cutting, the wear mechanisms, the
plowing, etc. The greatest care must be taken, and an anal-
ysis of the two above experiments must be done.
First, the experimental conditions are different. In the
standard scratch test case a normal force Fn is imposed and
in the high-speed scratch test the cutting depth is imposed.
Such differences give a first incidence on the maximum nor-
mal force measured and cutting depth.
Secondly, a physic analysis of the two experiences shows
that the trajectories of the two grains are different from one
Fig. 11. Transversal profile extracted from the scratch (Fig. 10).
process to another. In one case, the trajectory is linear and
in the other one it is circular. This observation has an impor-
tant consequence on the forces distribution (Figs. 8 and 12)
3.3. Specific abrasive energy and may have an incidence on the way the material is re-
moved. In fact, during the high-speed scratch test the depth
The specific abrasive energy is computed using Eq. (1). of scratch varies theoretically from 0 up to 20 ␮m. This is
The analysis of the scratch represented in Fig. 10 by means why the tangential force distribution is not constant (Fig. 8).
of TopoSurf gives the volume Ve = 1.34 × 10−4 mm3 of the Moreover, the cutting angle varies too during the high-speed
material removed. scratch test which may affect the specific abrasive energy.
The acquired tangential force represented in Fig. 12 could The sclerometer experiment gives some advantages. It
be considered as constant. In the steady state, the mean of is easy to make use of this way of investigation for sev-
the tangential force Ft is equal to 10 N for a scratch length eral reasons. First, the low velocity of the grain during the
equal to 0.7 mm (Fig. 12). So the specific abrasive energy is scratch test make the acquirement of the forces more easier.
computed as follows: Secondly, the grain could be easily replaced on the indenter
l l (Fig. 9), which is a great advantage when the life time and the
0.3 Ft (x) dx Ft (x) 0.3 dx Ft (x)(l − 0.3)
Es = = = (5) wear mechanisms of a grain population are studied. Finally,
Ve Ve Ve the sclerometer is useful when an abrasive manufacture
Table 1
Recapitulative table
Ft,max (N) Fn,max (N) Depth of the scratch (␮m) Vs Ve (mm3 ) Es (J mm−3 )
Sclerometer 10 20 5 0.3 mm s−1 1.34 × 10−4 52.23
High-speed scratch test 7 67 20 37 m s−1 5.38 × 10−3 15.86

5. 1298 H. Hamdi et al. / Wear 254 (2003) 1294–1298
will study the influence of the shape and the cutting angles fluence of the velocity on the grain behavior in the case of
of the grain on the specific abrasion energy. This could be a high-speed scratch test. Moreover, the experimental results
fast way to classify a population of grain and extract those of the grain behavior presented in this paper must be con-
presenting the best abrasive behavior. fronted to some numerical simulation of the scratch test.
The high-speed scratch test gives some advantages too. At last, if the behavior of the grain on the metal cutting
It allows to study the grain abrasive behavior in the case characteristics and physics will be understood, the grinding
of grinding conditions which impose the trajectories, the process and its effects on the workpiece will be better un-
velocity and the depth of cut. The main drawback is to derstood too.
hold the grain in position on the disk (Fig. 1) which
make the experiment heavy when several grains must be
compared. References
The comparison of the two experiments is critical in term
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