Study on the effect of grinding pressure on material removal behavior performed on a self-designed passive grinding simulator

Abstract

Passive grinding is a new rail grinding strategy. In this work, the influence of grinding pressure on the removal behaviors of rail material in passive grinding was investigated by using a self-designed passive grinding simulator. Meanwhile, the surface morphology of the rail and grinding wheel were observed, and the grinding force and temperature were measured during the experiment. Results show that the increase of grinding pressure leads to the rise of rail removal rate, i.e., grinding efficiency, surface roughness, residual stress, grinding force and grinding temperature. Inversely, the enhancement of grinding pressure and grinding force will reduce the grinding ratio, which indicates that service life of grinding wheel decreases. The debris presents dissimilar morphology under different grinding pressure, which reflects the distinction in grinding process. Therefore, for rail passive grinding, the appropriate grinding pressure should be selected to balance the grinding quality and the use of grinding wheel.