Numerical and Experimental Research on the Brushing Aluminium Alloy Mechanism Using an Abrasive Filament Brush

Abstract

Abrasive filament brushes have been widely used in surface processes for a wide range of applications, including blending, edge-radiusing, and polishing. However, the associated brush mechanics of material removal is still not clear. In order to analyze the brush grinding of aluminium alloy, this paper constructed a kinematic model of a single filament, simulated the scratch process of a single abrasive grain, and investigated the brush force and material removal based on the finite element approach. The simulated result shows that the brush grinding can be changed from elastic–plastic deformation to chip formation when increasing the brush speed to 1000 r/min. The normal and tangential forces increase linearly and quadratically with the increase in the rotation speed (500–5000 r/min), respectively, and increase linearly with the increase in the penetration depth (0.1–1 mm), which is consistent with the experiment results. In addition, the amount of material removal initially increases with the increase in penetration depth, and then decreases. This paper provides a new approach to understanding the process of material removal and is helpful for the selection of reasonable brush parameters in the intelligent grinding control application.

Keywords

• abrasive filament brush
• brush grinding
• material removal
• brush force
• finite element approach