Ceramics International 43 (2017) 15711577

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Ceramics International
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ceramint

Eects of grinding parameters on surface quality in silicon nitride grinding

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Wei Liu , Zhaohui Deng, Yuanyuan Shang, Linlin Wan
Hunan Provincial Key Laboratory of High Eciency and Precision Machining of Dicult-to-cut Material, Hunan University of Science and Technology,
Xiangtan 411201, Hunan Province, China

A R T I C L E I N F O A BS T RAC T

Keywords: To reveal the eects of the grinding parameters on the ground surface quality of silicon nitride grinding to guide
Silicon nitride processing for improving the processing accuracy and productivity, orthogonal experiments on silicon nitride
Grinding grinding are carried out by a diamond grinding wheel, and the eects are studied systematically. The inuences
Orthogonal experiment of the grinding parameters, such as the grain size, wheel speed, workpiece speed and grinding depth, are
Surface quality
analysed regarding their eects on the grinding force, surface morphology, surface roughness and subsurface
damage. The undeformed chip thickness and equivalent chip thickness are also studied to provide a
comprehensive analysis of the ground surface quality. The quality and eectiveness of silicon nitride grinding
can be improved by optimizing the grinding parameters according to this study.

1. Introduction
As a typical engineering ceramic, silicon nitride (Si3N4) ceramic has
been widely used in aerospace, national defence and other important
industrial areas for its excellent qualities of high strength, high
hardness, wear resistance, high-temperature resistance and chemical
resistance [1,2]. Grinding with superhard ne abrasives is the most
common method used for engineering ceramic machining [3].
However, the materials high hardness and brittleness often induce
residual stresses, plastic deformation, micro-cracks, and subsurface
cracks, which have negative eects on the mechanical properties and
largely restrict their development and application.
Despite various research eorts in engineering ceramic grinding
over the past two decades, much needs to be accomplished to under-
stand the grinding characteristics and to characterize the machining
damage and the mechanism of material removal [416]. Therefore, it is
essential to evaluate the eects of the grinding surface quality.
The ecient grinding of engineering ceramic requires the judicious
selection of machining parameters to maximize the removal rate while
controlling the surface quality [4]. Huang et al. [5] investigated the
eect of the grinding wheel speed on the material removal mechanism
and ground surface quality. The results showed that the eect of the
grinding wheel speed on the ground surface quality was insignicant
for a grinding wheel of a large grain size, but the ground surfaces
exhibited a predominantly ductile ow and were signicantly inu-
enced by the grinding wheel speed when using a wheel with a small
grain size. Chen et al. [6] investigated and analyzed the factors that
inuence the surface quality of brittle materials during ultra-precision
grinding. The results showed that the average abrasive grain size of the
diamond wheel had the main inuence on the surface quality, while the
inuence of the wheel speed and feed rate were secondary. Li et al. [7]
carried out studies to determine the material removal rate of Si3N4
during single-pass grinding. The results suggested that there was an
optimum depth of cut that yielded the greatest material removal rate. If
the grinding depth is larger than this optimum depth of cut, premature
dulling of the diamond wheel occurs, and the grinding surface quality
of the Si3N4 drastically decreases. Agarwal [810] conducted a study
for a high removal rate and studied the eects of various parameters on
the surface quality of silicon carbide grinding using a diamond grinding
wheel. The results indicated that the material removal was primarily
due to microfracture and grain dislodgement, and the parameters of
the depth of cut, feed rate, grit size and grit density were the primary
inuencing factors that aect the surface integrity. Qiao et al. [14]
investigated the inuence of machining parameters on the surface
roughness in the ultrasonic vibration mill-grinding of hot-pressed
Si3N4. The detected results indicated that the spindle speed had the
most signicant inuence on the surface roughness, followed by the
feed speed, cutting depth and amplitude in turn. Jing et al. [15]
investigated the cutting force of face machining with conventional
grinding and rotary ultrasonic grinding machining (RUGM). The
experimental results showed that the cutting force of RUGM was
approximately 25% less than that of conventional grinding for face
machining, and the ground surface quality could be improved. Wang
et al. [16] presented an optimization model to choose proper machin-
ing parameters for the ultrasonic vibration assisted grinding of Si3N4
and explained the principles of the improvement of the grinding force

Corresponding author.
E-mail address: lw1986tiger@163.com (W. Liu).

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ceramint.2016.10.135
Received 17 June 2016; Received in revised form 30 August 2016; Accepted 19 October 2016
Available online 22 October 2016
0272-8842/ 2016 Elsevier Ltd and Techna Group S.r.l. All rights reserved.
W. Liu et al. Ceramics International 43 (2017) 15711577

Table 1 Table 2
The properties of the Si3N4 workpiece used in the experiment. The grinding conditions.

Density Hardness Bending Fracture Elasticity Factors Parameters Levels

strength toughness modulus
1 2 3 4
3.2 g/cm3 1700 HV 700 MPa 4.5 MPa m1/2 320 GPa
a Grain size [#] 40 80 100 400
b Wheel speed [m/s] 12.6 18.8 25.1 31.4
and surface roughness. c Workpiece speed [mm/s] 20 30 40 50
d Grinding depth [m] 2 5 10 15
From the literature review above, it is found that there has been no
systematic study of the surface quality of engineering ceramic grinding.
In this study, the inuences of grinding parameters such as the grain detected by a digital microscope VHX-500FE, and the roughness of
size, wheel speed, workpiece speed and grinding depth are analysed for the ground surface was measured using a portable surface roughometer
their eects on the grinding force, surface morphology, surface rough- MarSurf M300. The cross section perpendicular to the ground surface
ness and subsurface damage of Si3N4 grinding. The undeformed chip was polished to a mirror nish on a metallographic polishing machine
thickness and equivalent chip thickness are also studied for a compre- PW-1A and a nano polishing machine Nanopoli-100 and etched and
hensive analysis of the ground surface quality. metal sprayed, and then the subsurface damage was examined using a
scanning electron microscope FEI Quanta 200.
2. Experimental The grinding conditions are as given in Table 2, where the grain
size, wheel speed, workpiece speed and grinding depth were studied for
2.1. Materials their eects on the grinding force, surface morphology, surface rough-
ness and subsurface damage.
The materials used for the experiment were gas pressure sintered The orthogonal experimental method was used to reduce the
and made of Si3N4. The Si3N4 workpiece had a hardness of 1700 HV, number of tests while ensuring the eectiveness of the overall Si3N4
bending strength of 700 MPa and elasticity modulus of 320 GPa, as grinding experiment. An L16(45) standard orthogonal table was se-
presented in Table 1. The specimens had dimensions of lected for the above 4 factors and 4 levels of the Si3N4 grinding
20 mm20 mm10 mm and the grinding was carried on the experiment. The experimental scheme and results are shown in
20 mm10 mm surface with a single pass. Table 3. To ensure the correct results, each experiment was repeated
three times.
2.2. Experiment setup and conditions
3. Results and discussion
The Si3N4 grinding experiment was performed on a CNC high
precision surface grinding machine MGK71206/F, using a water- 3.1. Grinding force
based grinding uid and a resin-bonded diamond grinding wheel with
a size of 200 mm32 mm15 mm. Fig. 1 shows the grinding According to Si3N4 grinding results in Table 3, it can be calculated
experimental system. The grinding force was measured using a piezo- that the grinding force is less than 15 N/mm, and the grinding force
electric dynamometer Kistler9257B. The surface topography was ratio is between 5 and 12, which is in accordance with the grinding
characteristic of a brittle material. By range analysis, the variations of
the tangential force and normal force with the grinding parameters are
as shown in Figs. 2 and 3.
The normal force has a major impact on the grinding force. Both the
Grinding carriage tangential force and normal force decrease with the increasing wheel
speed and increase with the increasing workpiece speed and grinding
Grinding wheel depth; the grinding depth is the most inuential factor on the grinding
Workpiece force. As the number of the grain size increases, the actual grain size
decreases, while the tangential force and normal force increase. The
Fixture signicant increase in the tangential force is helpful for material
removal in grinding.
Dynamometer
3.2. Surface morphology and surface roughness
Worktable

The surface morphology of the ground Si3N4 is as shown in Fig. 4. It

can be clearly seen that there are numerous visible grinding grooves on
the surface ground by the diamond grinding wheel, while the brittle
fracture surfaces appear dark and the smooth surfaces are bright
Grinding wheel yellow. When using a 40# grinding wheel, large pits are formed in the
ground surface, which are generated by material's brittle fracture that
Workpiece is caused by the extension of the transverse crack system to the
material surface as a result of the contact pressure. As the number of
Dynamometer Signal amplifier the grain size increases, the actual grain size and spacing decrease,
causing the grinding grooves to become thin, dense and shallow and
Fixture reducing the quantity and area of the pits. This reects the trend of
material removal from brittle to plastic.
Worktable Data collection system After a range analysis of the surface roughness results in Table 3,
the variations of the surface roughness with the grinding parameters
Fig. 1. The grinding experiment system. are as shown in Fig. 5. With the increasing grain size and wheel speed,

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Table 3
The experiment parameters and results.

No. Factor a Factor b Factor c Factor d Tangential force (N/mm) Normal force (N/mm) Surface roughness (m) Subsurface damage depth (m)

1 1 1 1 1 0.215 2.395 1.050 14.2

2 1 2 2 2 0.379 4.138 1.242 18.8
3 1 3 3 3 0.549 5.929 1.402 30.7
4 1 4 4 4 0.905 8.940 1.770 37.2
5 2 1 2 3 0.656 6.316 1.269 24.5
6 2 2 1 4 1.174 10.968 1.212 23.3
7 2 3 4 1 0.232 2.177 0.634 10.3
8 2 4 3 2 0.431 4.072 0.732 12.4
9 3 1 3 4 2.006 12.016 1.238 25.5
10 3 2 4 3 1.196 7.719 1.122 23.7
11 3 3 1 2 0.345 2.681 0.647 10.2
12 3 4 2 1 0.244 1.315 0.369 5.2
13 4 1 4 2 0.889 6.310 0.558 10.5
14 4 2 3 1 0.312 1.616 0.362 3.4
15 4 3 2 4 1.881 11.178 0.534 9.6
16 4 4 1 3 1.091 6.284 0.244 4.8

3.3. Subsurface damage depth

Fig. 6 shows the subsurface damage of the ground Si3N4 as

Fig. 2. The tangential force of Si3N4 grinding by range analysis.
observed by SEM. It can be seen that there are both cracks and pits.
The crack depths are marked directly over the corresponding damage
zone. The damage in general became smaller in size with the use of
ner diamond grits.
According to the Si3N4 grinding results in Table 3, the variation of
the subsurface damage depth with the grinding parameters is as shown
in Fig. 7 by range analysis. It can be seen that the subsurface damage
depth of the ground Si3N4 decreases with the increasing grain size and
wheel speed, and it increases with the increasing workpiece speed and
grinding depth.
As the number of the grain size increases, the actual grain size
decreases, the surface density of the grain increases, and the eective
grain spacing decreases, resulting in the decreasing undeformed chip
thickness of the grain. With the increasing wheel speed or decreasing
workpiece speed or grinding depth, the undeformed chip thickness of
the grain decreases. As the undeformed chip thickness of the grain
decreases, the grinding force is reduced, and the subsurface damage
depth of the ground Si3N4 is thereby reduced.

3.4. Comprehensive discussions

Figs. 5 and 7 seem similar, which means that grinding parameters

have similar inuences on the surface roughness and subsurface
damage depth of the ground Si3N4. The essence is the change in the
maximum undeformed chip thickness of the grain, as shown in Fig. 8.
The maximum undeformed chip thickness of the grain agmax can be
calculated as follow [2]

vw ap
agmax = AB = 2
vs ds (1)

where is the inter-grain spacing, vw is the workpiece velocity, vs is the

grinding wheel speed, a p is the grinding depth, and ds is the grinding
wheel diameter. Under dierent combinations of grinding parameters,
the maximum undeformed chip thickness of the grain changes, which
Fig. 3. The normal force of Si3N4 grinding by range analysis.
results in changes to a single grain's cutting force and material removal
mode, thereby aecting the surface topography, surface roughness and
the quality of the workpiece surface becomes signicantly better and
subsurface damage depth of the ground Si3N4.
the surface roughness decreases. With the increasing workpiece speed
As the size and protrusion height of the grains on the grinding
and grinding depth, the quality of the workpiece surface uctuates and
wheel surface are not uniform, the inter-grain spacing is not xed but
the surface roughness increases. The most inuential factor for the
varies with the grinding conditions, which makes the calculation of the
surface roughness is the grain size, followed by the grinding depth.
maximum undeformed chip thickness of the grain agmax dicult.
Therefore, the equivalent chip thickness aep was used to characterize
the relationships among the grinding force, surface roughness, subsur-

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a) Experiment No. 3
d) Experiment No. 8
g) Experiment No. 14
Fig. 4. The surface morphology of the ground Si3N4. (For interpretation of the references to color in this gure, the reader is referred to the web version of this article).
Fig. 5. The surface roughness of the ground Si3N4 by range analysis.
face damage depth and grinding parameters. The equivalent chip
thickness aep can be considered as a modied depth of cut, and it
may be visualized as the thickness of the stream of material emitted
from the contact zone by the grinding wheel as illustrated in Fig. 9. The
equivalent chip thickness aep can be calculated as follow [2]:
Ceramics International 43 (2017) 15711577
b) Experiment No. 4 c) Experiment No. 5
e) Experiment No. 11 f) Experiment No. 12
h) Experiment No. 16
vw
aep = ap
vs (2)
According to the Si3N4 grinding parameters and the results in
Table 3, the equivalent chip thickness could be calculated for the
experiment, and the variation of the surface roughness and subsurface
damage depth with the equivalent chip thickness could then be
obtained, as shown in Figs. 10 and 11, and the trendline for dierent
grinding wheels could be obtained from power tting. It can be seen
that the surface roughness and subsurface damage depth of the ground
Si3N4 generally decrease in size with the ner diamond grits and as the
equivalent chip thickness decreases.
As the grinding force and surface roughness are easy to detectthe
variation of subsurface damage depth can be obtained by analysing the
change tendencies of these parameters. Therefore, with some preven-
tive optimization of the grinding parameters according to the above
analysis, the surface roughness and subsurface damage of the ground
Si3N4 can be reduced, and the grinding quality and eciency can
thereby be improved.
3.5. Experimental verication
According to the discussion above, a special experiment on Si3N4
grinding was performed, where the grain size, wheel speed, workpiece
speed and grinding depth were 400 #, 31.4 m/s, 20 mm/s and 2 m,
respectively. It could be calculated that the equivalent chip thickness
obtained from these grinding conditions was the smallest. Then
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37.6m
12.2m

a) Experiment No. 4 b) Experiment No. 8

10.5m

3.8m

c) Experiment No. 11 d) Experiment No. 14

Fig. 6. The subsurface damage of the ground Si3N4 by SEM.

Grinding wheel

vs

O O

vw
A
ap
B

Fig. 7. The subsurface damage depth of the ground Si3N4 by range analysis.
Workpiece

Fig. 8. The undeformed chip thickness of the grain.

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Grinding wheel

vs vs

aep

ap

vw
Workpiece

Fig. 9. The equivalent chip thickness.

Fig. 11. The subsurface damage depth of the ground Si3N4 versus the equivalent chip
thickness.

Fig. 10. The surface roughness of the ground Si3N4 versus the equivalent chip thickness.
grinding results for the tangential force, normal force, surface rough-
ness and subsurface damage were 0.178 N/mm, 1.126 N/mm,
0.186 m and 1.5 m, respectively, which were smaller than the results
in the orthogonal experiment, and the surface morphology of the
ground Si3N4 was also better. The special experiment results indicate
that the analysis in this study could accurately improve the quality of
the Si3N4 grinding.
2) In Si3N4 grinding, the grinding force is less than 15 N/mm and the
grinding force ratio is between 5 and 12, which is in accordance
with the grinding characteristic of brittle material. The normal force
plays a major role in the grinding force. As the number of the grain
size increases, the tangential force signicantly increases, which is
helpful for material removal in grinding.
3) There are numerous visible grinding grooves on the surface ground
by the diamond grinding wheel. When using a 40 # grinding wheel,
there are large pits in the ground surface. As the number of grain
size increases, the grinding grooves become thin, dense and
shallow, and the quantity and area of the pits are reduced. This
reects the trend of material removal from brittle to plastic.
4) The grinding parameters have similar inuence on the surface
roughness and subsurface damage depth of the ground Si3N4. With
increasing grain size and wheel speed, the surface roughness and
subsurface damage depth decrease, while they increase with
increasing workpiece speed and grinding depth. The essence is
the change in the maximum undeformed chip thickness of the grain
and equivalent chip thickness.
5) As the grinding force and surface roughness are easy to detectthe
variation of the subsurface damage depth can be obtained by
analysing the change tendencies of the grinding force and surface
roughness. Therefore, with some preventive optimization of the
grinding parameters according to this paper, the grinding quality
and eciency of ground Si3N4 can be improved, and these results
were veried by a special experiment regarding Si3N4 grinding.
Acknowledgments

4. Conclusions This work was supported by the National Natural Science

Based on the above investigation and discussion, the following
conclusions were obtained:
1) L16(45) orthogonal experiments on Si3N4 grinding were carried out
by a diamond grinding wheel on surface grinding machine
MGK71206/F. The inuences of grinding parameters such as
the grain size, wheel speed, workpiece speed and grinding depth are
analysed for their eects on the grinding force, surface morphology,
surface roughness and subsurface damage.
Foundation of China (Grant no. 51505144), and the Open
Foundation for Hunan Provincial Key Laboratory of High Eciency
and Precision Machining of Dicult-to-Cut Material (Grant no.
E21539). The authors would like to thank Xiaoyu Zhao for his kind
help in experiment.
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