Measurement of temperature field in surface grinding using infra-red (IR) imaging system

An experimental technique is described for measuring the temperature field in a workpiece during surface grinding. The technique involves measurement of the radiation emitted by a side of the workpiece immediately adjoining the wheel-workpiece contact region using a Charge-Coupled Device (CCD) based Infra-Red imaging system. By using an appropriate calibration procedure, measured radiation values are converted to temperatures. Novel aspects of the experimental technique are full-field measurement of temperature at high spatial and temporal resolution, high sensitivity and non-intrusive measurement. The repeatability of temperature measurement is found to be very good. The experiments have provided an accurate estimate of the surface and sub-surface temperatures in the workpiece. Furthermore, by grinding along a taper with a continuously increasing depth of cut, the effect of material removal rate on temperature field has been characterized. Measurements of the temperature field in taper grinding have been found to correlate well with those made in conventional constant depth grinding thereby, establishing taper grinding as a viable, accelerated test for studying grinding temperatures. Full-field measurements of workpiece temperature should facilitate study of thermal damage and multi-scale validation of thermal models in grinding.