Numerical Analysis on Temperature Field of Grinding Ti-6Al-4V Titanium Alloy by Oscillating Heat Pipe Grinding Wheel

When grinding hard-to-machining materials such as titanium alloys, a massive grinding heat is generated and gathers in the grinding zone due to the low thermal conduction of the materials. The accumulated grinding heat easily leads to severe thermal damages to both the workpiece and the grinding wheel. A novel oscillating heat pipe (OHP) grinding wheel is one of the solutions to this phenomenon. The oscillating heat pipe grinding wheel can transfer the grinding heat directly from the grinding zone to avoid heat accumulation and a high temperature rise. In this paper, the temperature field of the grinding Ti-6Al-4V alloy is investigated, via the oscillating heat pipe grinding wheel, by numerical analysis. The three-dimensional thermal conduction model is built accordingly, containing the grinding wheel, grinding zone and Ti-6Al-4V workpiece. Due to the enhanced heat transport capacity of the oscillating heat pipe grinding wheel, the highest temperature in the grinding zone and the temperature on the ground surface of the workpiece decrease dramatically. For example, under a grinding heat flux of 1 x 10(7) W/m(2), when using the grinding wheel without OHP and with OHPs, the highest temperature in the grinding zone drops from 917 degrees C to 285 degrees C by 68.7%, and the ground surface temperature decreases from 823 degrees C to 244 degrees C by 71.2%. Moreover, the temperature distribution on the grinding wheel is more uniform with an increase of the number of oscillating heat pipes.