Wear-induced variation of surface roughness in grinding 2.5D Cf/SiC composites

As the ideal high-temperature component materials, Cf/SiC composites require high grinding surface quality for their final preparation. It is a challenging issue to achieve the desired surface quality of such hard brittle material with serious rapid tool wear. A surface roughness predictive model involving the grinding wheel cumulative wear was developed for grinding process of 2.5D needled Cf/SiC composites. Compared with the experimental data, the predicted ground surface roughness errors of 2.5D needled Cf/SiC composites are less than 12%. It is found that due to the grinding wheel cumulative wear effects, the resin-bonded diamond wheel presented self-sharpening phenomenon as increasing specific material removal volume (SMRV). The grinding wheel cumulative wear effects are conducive to Cf/SiC ground surface improvement. When the SMRV reached 720 mm3/mm, the surface roughness decreased by 21.2% with a 180# grinding wheel, and 8.6% with a 280# grinding wheel. This work provides some insights for preparing the tool condition during grinding 2.5D needled Cf/SiC composites.