Temperature modeling of creep-feed grinding processes for nickel-based superalloys with variable heat flux distribution

In aerospace industry, turbine engine blades made of nickel-based superalloys are commonly machined by creep-feed grinding processes. In order to pre-design grinding processes and avoid grinding burn, a method for calibrating a thermal finite element model was developed. For this purpose, the heat flux distribution and heat partition were evaluated by solving an optimization problem with the BOBYQA algorithm. A heat flux distribution differing from the frequently used triangular distribution was found and, further, a regression model estimating the heat partition was calibrated. The findings were compared to the experimental results, which showed a good agreement of the transient temperatures and maximum temperature rise. Subsequently, the findings were transferred to the grinding process of a fir tree profile.