Temperature field responses to face gear grinding conditions based on a comprehensive force–thermal model

Previous works on the thermal modelling for face gear grinding usually used Hertzian contact theory and ignored the material removal mechanism. By contrast, a comprehensive force–thermal model was founded on the wheel–gear geometry and material mechanism for economical and efficient prediction of grinding temperature field in this work. In the process of grinding face gear, a force model was established on the basis of single-grain model under the action of grinding fluid. The temperature analytical model for face gear was derived considering the contribution of the cross-sectional area of the undeformed chip thickness to the heat flux. Moreover, energy partition ratio to workpiece was optimized by applied the idea of averaging to solving formulas. The temperature field responses to different grinding conditions were simulated and investigated. The aftereffect of grinding parameters on the temperature fields on the tooth surface and the reason for variations in the grinding temperature to different grinding positions of face gear was analysed. The experimental results with newly measurement method are highly consistent with the simulation results with the error of −6.10% to −13.69%, thereby validating the proposed model. This work provides theoretical support for obtaining a uniform grinding temperature during grinding face gear and to obtain a high tooth surface integrity.