A study of the interaction between coolant jet nozzle flow and the airflow around a grinding wheel in cylindrical grinding

Abstract

A grinding wheel rotating at high circumferential speed induces a boundary-layer airflow which possibly can detain the coolant from submerging into the grinding zone, in order to prevent thermal damage. To study the profile of the airflow, general laws of fluid dynamics are applied and the analytical results compared with results from CFD simulations. These are used to investigate the interaction of the coolant with the grinding wheel under the influence of the airflow with different coolant nozzle types and parameters. For validation high speed imaging is employed. The conclusions may help for a general understanding of the interaction between wheel-airflow-coolant.