SUMMARY
Using cutting fluid in grinding is the most common strategy to generate cooling and lubrication. The expense of cutting fluid comprises nearly 20% of the total manufacturing cost. Besides, worker health and safety concerns were drawn since conventional flood cooling generates extensive amount of mist. MQL (Minimum Quantity Lubrication), which is to apply minimum amount of lubricant directly into the contact zone, is an alternative to deal with those concerns. Residual stress is an important aspect of surface integrity due to its notable influence on fatigue life, corrosion resistance, etc. In order to advance the MQL technique into practical manufacturing situations, understanding of the process and evaluation of the performance is necessary. The first part of this research is aimed at predictive modeling of force, temperature and residual stress in MQL grinding process. The expected outcome is to provide a physical understanding of the process and a tangible way for control and optimization.In traditional grinding of ceramics, the material removal is brittle fracture which will impair surface quality. However, plastic-flow material removal could be achieved with high wheel velocity and precision infeed control. Surface fracture is the result of brittle fracture mode material removal and it is very much related to the surface roughness and surface strength. The second part is focused on developing a quantitative mode of predicting the surface fracture and surface roughness from process parameters and material properties. The expected outcome will be an evaluation of the surface quality of ground ceramic materials.