Experimental verification of nanoparticle jet minimum quantity lubrication effectiveness in grinding

In our experiment, K-P36 precision numerical control surface grinder was used for dry grinding, minimum quantity lubrication (MQL) grinding, nanoparticle jet MQL grinding, and traditional flood grinding of hardened 45 steel. A three-dimensional dynamometer was used to measure grinding force in the experiment. In this research, experiments were conducted to measure and calculate specific tangential grinding force, frictional coefficient, and specific grinding energy, thus verifying the lubrication performance of nanoparticles in surface grinding. Findings present that compared with dry grinding, the specific tangential grinding force of MQL grinding, nanoparticle jet MQL grinding, and flood grinding decreased by 45.88, 62.34, and 69.33 %, respectively. Their frictional coefficient was reduced by 11.22, 29.21, and 32.18 %, and the specific grinding energy declined by 45.89, 62.34, and 69.45 %, respectively. Nanoparticle jet MQL presented ideal lubrication effectiveness, which was attributed to the friction oil film with strong antifriction and anti-wear features formed by nanoparticles on the grinding wheel/workpiece interface. Moreover, lubricating properties of nanoparticles of the same size (50 nm) but different types were verified through experimentation. In our experiment, ZrO₂ nanoparticles, polycrystal diamond (PCD) nanoparticles, and MoS₂ nanoparticles were used in the comparison of nanoparticle jet MQL grinding. The experimental results manifest that MoS₂ nanoparticles exhibited the optimal lubricating effectiveness, followed by PCD nanoparticles. Our research also integrated the properties of different nanoparticles to analyze the lubrication mechanisms of different nanoparticles. The experiment further verified the impact of nanoparticle concentration on the effectiveness of nanoparticle jet MQL in grinding. The experimental results demonstrate that when the nanoparticle mass fraction was 6 %, the minimum specific tangential grinding force, frictional coefficient, and specific grinding energy were 1.285 N/mm, 0.382, and 57.825 J/mm³, respectively. When nanoparticle mass fraction was smaller than 6 %, lubrication effects of nanoparticle jet MQL increased with the rising nanoparticle mass fraction. When nanoparticle mass fraction was larger than 6 %, lubrication effects of nanoparticle jet MQL decreased with the rising nanoparticle mass fraction.