Fracture behavior and self-sharpening mechanisms of polycrystalline cubic boron nitride in grinding based on cohesive element method

Unlike monocrystalline cubic boron nitride (CBN), polycrystalline CBN (PCBN) shows not only higher fracture resistance induced by tool-workpiece interaction but also better self-sharpening capability; therefore, efforts have been devoted to the study of PCBN applications in manufacturing engineering. Most of the studies, however, remain qualitative due to difficulties in experimental observations and theoretical modeling and provide limited in-depth understanding of the self-sharpening behavior/mechanism. To fill this research gap, the present study investigates the self-sharpening process of PCBN abrasives in grinding and analyzes the macro-scale fracture behavior and highly localized micro-scale crack propagation in detail. The widely employed finite element (FE) method, together with the classic Voronoi diagram and cohesive element technique, is used considering the pronounced success of FE applications in polycrystalline material modeling. Grinding trials with careful observation of the PCBN abrasive morphologies are performed to validate the proposed method. The self-sharpening details, including fracture morphology, grinding force, strain energy, and damage dissipation energy, are studied. The effects of maximum grain cut depths (MGCDs) and grinding speeds on the PCBN fracture behavior are discussed, and their optimum ranges for preferable PCBN self-sharpening performance are suggested.