Original Article

Proc IMechE Part B:

J Engineering Manufacture
2016, Vol. 230(8) 1372–1380
A critical energy model for brittle–ductile Ó IMechE 2016
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DOI: 10.1177/0954405416654194

speed and chip thickness effects pib.sagepub.com

Chongjun Wu1,2, Beizhi Li1 and Steven Y Liang2

Abstract
The ability to predict the critical depth for ductile-mode grinding of brittle materials is important to grinding process
optimization and quality control. The traditional models for predicting the critical depth are mainly concerned with the
material properties without considering the operation parameters. This article presents a new critical energy model for
brittle–ductile transition by considering the strain rate effect brought by the grinding wheel speed and chip thickness.
The experiments will be conducted through a high-speed diamond grinder on reaction-sintered silicon carbide materials
under different grinding speed and chip thickness. Through detailed analysis of the strain rate effect on the dynamic frac-
ture toughness, a new fracture toughness model will be established based on the Johnson–Holmquist material model
(JH-2) and calibrated through experiments based on the indentation fracture mechanics. Then, the new critical model
for brittle–ductile transition will be established by introducing the dynamic facture toughness model considering the
wheel speed and chip thickness. According to scanning electron microscope observations, the results show that ductile-
mode grinding can be obtained through a combination of higher grinding speed and smaller chip thickness. Moreover,
the critical value for ductile grinding of brittle materials can be improved through the elevation of the grinding speed or
reduction in the chip thickness.

Keywords
Brittle–ductile transition, ductile grinding, silicon carbide, high-speed grinding, strain rate

Date received: 4 February 2016; accepted: 19 May 2016

Introduction frictional wear of rock salts. He found that although

there were some cracks, there was still some plastic
As typical brittle materials with high hardness, excel- deformation involved. In the subsequent work, Lawn
lent wear resistance and extremely high-temperature et al.10 reported that there is a critical depth when
strength, engineering ceramics are now being increas- indenting a hard material and the critical depth can
ingly used in engineering applications such as bearing, define the transition from a failure characterized by
valves and optical components.1,2 Grinding with dia- plastic deformation to a failure characterized by frac-
mond wheels3,4 is generally considered as the main pro- ture. Afterwards, Lawn and Marshall11 proposed an
cessing method which can be expected to obtain a empirical formula for the required lower bound of the
desired dimensional tolerance and surface integrity. critical load P and the resulting critical crack length C
However, machining of this ultra-hard ceramic mate- correlated with the fracture toughness and hardness of
rial will inevitably cause microcracks5 and subsurface the substrate material. Blake and Scattergood12 intro-
damage6 which will deteriorate surface quality.7 In duced the material removal energy to explain the
order to achieve crack-free and high-quality products
without post-processing, ductile-regime machining was
put forward for brittle materials. This kind of machin- 1
School of Mechanical Engineering, Donghua University, Shanghai, China
ing mode can generate the chips through a mode of 2
Manufacturing Research Center, Georgia Institute of Technology,
plastic deformation rather than fracture and thus a Atlanta, GA, USA
higher accuracy of the machined surface.8
Corresponding author:
In the last decades, ductile machining has been Steven Y Liang, Manufacturing Research Center, Georgia Institute of
widely reported. In 1954, King and Tabor9 observed Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332, USA.
the ductile-mode machining for the first time during Email: Steven.liang@me.gatech.edu

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Wu et al. 1373

ductile–brittle transition. Later on, Bifano et al.13 pre- the ground surface integrity.21 Through finite element
sented a ductile–brittle transition model on the basis of method (FEM) simulation and experiments, Li et al.22
the material removal energy,12 where the ductile grind- show that the actual brittle–ductile transition point for
ing can be achieved under a certain critical chip thick- SiC is larger than that derived from the quasi-static
ness value. This critical model is independent from the condition. However, insufficient practical investigation
process parameters and only correlated with material for ductile grinding of SiC is given in their work, a
mechanical properties. In the later works, the brittle– quantitative description needs to be further discussed.
ductile transition models show more correlations In the HSG of brittle materials, the increase in the
with machining tools and process parameters. wheel velocity will definitely enhance the strain rate of
Venkatachalam et al.14 proposed a fracture-toughness- material when the grinding wheel interacts with the
based model to predict the ductile–brittle transitional workpiece. It has been reported that the increase in the
undeformed chip thickness and analyzed different strain rate will definitely affect the material mechanical
influence factors in end-turning of silicon wafer. Arif properties, especially for fracture toughness. The frac-
et al.8 proposed a specific cutting-energy-based model ture toughness of marble in high loading rate was
to predict the ductile–brittle transition point in ultra- investigated using a servo-hydraulic machine and a
precision machining of brittle materials. The energy modified split Hopkinson pressure bar.23 The results
expended in brittle and ductile modes of machining is indicated that the increase of loading rate can lead to a
modeled as a function of work-material intrinsic prop- substantial enhancement of the dynamic fracture
erties, tool geometry and process parameters. A lot of toughness. The above results can also be concluded
simulations were undertaken to provide more theoreti- from the dynamic fracture toughness model established
cal support for ductile machining of brittle materials. A by Liu et al.,15 and the MD simulations for HSG of
newly established molecular dynamics (MD) simula- SiC in their work are fully discussed. Wu et al.24 con-
tion15 interpreted the origin of ductile response for sili- ducted the HSG experiments to investigate grinding
con carbide (SiC), which is a combination of high- temperature of SiC and concluded that the grinding
pressure phase transformation (HPPT) and dislocation temperature is generally between 150 °C and 400 °C.
activities, while dislocation plasticity plays a major role. Huang and Zhu25 investigated the high-temperature
For further investigation of ductile grinding of SiC, Liu strength of SiC and proved that the the fracture tough-
et al.15 established a dynamic fracture toughness model ness and flexural strength did not change when it is
based on the Johnson–Holmquist material model16 under 800 °C. Therefore, the effect of grinding tempera-
(JH-2) and then a series of MD simulations for single ture on ductile grinding will not be discussed in this
grit interaction with workpiece were conducted to con- article.
clude that the SiC workpiece will get toughened when From the above literature review, it is clear that the
the wheel speed increases. However, the above works grinding wheel speed and other operation parameters
about ductile machining are either in a relative lower will have a great influence on the brittle–ductile transi-
machining speed or in micro-machining, which has its tion of brittle material. However, the previous research
limitations to more extensive application. Moreover, for brittle–ductile transition did not fully investigate the
the critical model for ductile machining did not fully effects brought by the grinding wheel speed and chip
consider the joint influence of machining speed and thickness. Therefore, this article is devoted to establish
chip thickness. a new critical model for brittle–ductile transition by
The high-speed grinding (HSG) process was charac- considering the strain rate effect brought by the grind-
terized by the elevated wheel velocity of above 60 m/s, ing wheel speed and chip thickness. To achieve this,
which dramatically reduces the maximum chip thick- JH-2 model will be used to illustrate the strain rate
ness and thus a reduce of grinding forces.17 In the past effect on grinding process and then a previously estab-
decades, HSG has been developed as a finishing pro- lished energy-based model will be revised by consider-
cess in order to avoid the grinding-induced damage
ing the dynamic fracture toughness. And this dynamic
layer on the ceramics.18 In order to avoid brittle frac-
fracture toughness model will be established based on
ture in grinding of ceramics, the wheel velocities were
the JH-2 model and then calibrated on the basis of
increased, leading to an improvement in ground surface
indentation fracture mechanics. Finally, the new critical
quality when grinding was conducted within the region
energy model will be set up and a series of experiments
where ductile flow was prevalent.18 Kovach and
will be conducted to verify the prediction accuracy.
Malkin19 clearly demonstrated that HSG of advanced
ceramics can result in an improved surface finish. Their
results also showed a transition from a brittle fracture
mode to a low damage ductile grinding mode could be Theoretical model for ductile grinding
achieved when the wheel speed elevated. Similar results Critical energy model of general criterion in ductile-
were also reported in the HSG of silicon nitride.20
Moreover, the increased wheel speed can greatly
regime grinding
improve the depth of cut and feed rate to obtain a Bifano et al.13 established a chip thickness model by
higher material removal rate while not deteriorating considering material removal energy, which is totally

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1374 Proc IMechE Part B: J Engineering Manufacture 230(8)

independent from the process parameters. It can be dynamic fracture toughness, Kalthoff34 believed that
expressed as the dynamic stress intensity factor cannot be deter-
    mined by static stress intensity factor. The strain rate
E K1C 2 effect should be considered in the study of ductile
dc = b  ð1Þ
HV HV grinding of brittle materials.
In study of the grinding mechanism, the JH-2 model
where b is a constant which is determined by material
has successfully been used in the simulation analysis
properties. E, HV and K1C are the elastic modulus, the
and provided theoretical support for application of JH-
hardness and the mode-1 fracture toughness, respec-
2 model in grinding research. Based on the JH-2 model,
tively. According to a series of grinding experiments13
Zhu et al.35 and Yuan et al.36 developed the finite ele-
on different brittle materials, the constant b is obtained
ment analysis on investigation of crack propagation
and b = 0.15 for any brittle materials (less than 10%
and optimized the grinding parameters. When interact-
fracture surface). Based on equation (1), the critical
ing with the workpiece, the abrasive grit will make
value for SiC is about 0.06 mm (E = 415 GPa,
intermittent processing, which is similar to the shock
HV = 23 GPa and K1C = 3.5 MPa m1/2),22 which is too
experiments in JH-2 model. Sun et al.37 studied the
small and can only be achieved under a very low mate-
grinding damages and transient stress in single grit
rial removal rate. In ductile-regime grinding of brittle
simulation. It has been proved that the compression
materials, Bifano26 has shown that if the maximum
stress zone would be the main stress around the grits,
undeformed chip thickness hcu of single abrasive grit is
which is very close to shock experiments in JH-2 model
less than the critical depth of penetration dc, the grind-
calibration.38 Moreover, the strain rate in the JH-2
ing will be in the ductile regime. The maximum unde-
formed chip thickness is written as follows23,27 model has the range from quasi-static to more than
105/s (the experiments limit),38 comparing with the
 rffiffiffiffiffi12 simulation strain rate of 104–107.39 For a further inves-
3 Vw ae
hcu =  ð2Þ tigation of the experiments setup, the impact speed of
Nd  tan f Vs de
JH-2 model was about 1000–5000 m/s on a specimen
where Nd is the active grit number in unit area; f is the length of 80 mm.38 While the grinding experiments was
semi-included angle of the active grit; ae is the depth of conducted between 20 and 140 m/s on a contact length
cut; Vw is the workpiece speed; Vs is the grinding wheel of about 1–2 mm in this article. These indications all
velocity; and de is the equivalent wheel diameter, show good agreement on the application of JH-2 model
de = ds  dw =(ds + dw ), where dw is the workpiece dia- in the study of grinding. Therefore, based on the above
meter and ds is the wheel diameter. In order to simplify proof, the stress condition and strain rate in the grind-
the analysis of individual interaction with the work- ing process was assumed to conform to the shock
piece material, different shapes for abrasive grit have experiments in JH-2 model in this article. The JH-2
been approximated. In this article, a conical shape28,29 model is given below15,16
will be used for mathematical simplification. The semi-
included angle of the active grit u is 60°.30 The value of _ HEL
s = (1 + Clne)s
" 
Nd, in equation (2), can be derived as follows31 N    M !#
P+T P+T N P ð4Þ
A D A B
PHEL PHEL PHEL
4x
Nd = ð3Þ
fd2g (4p=3v)2=3 g where s is the material equivalent stress under the
_ D is the dam-
hydrostatic pressure P and strain rate e,
where dg is the equivalent spherical diameter of dia-
age degree and T is the maximum tensile hydrostatic
mond grit, v is the volume fraction of diamond in the
pressure that the material can withstand. A, B, C, M
grinding wheel and x is the fraction of diamond parti-
and N are the material constants. sHEL is the equiva-
cles that actively cutting in grinding. The grinding wheel
lent stress at the Hugoniot elastic limit (HEL) and
used in this article has a density of 150, or in other
words, volume fraction v is 0.375.32 The active grit are PHEL is the pressure at the HEL. On the basis of this
assumed that one-third of the total diamond particles model, Liu et al.15 established the dynamic fracture
are actively engaged in cutting,33 or the value of x is toughness model, which can be shown as
equal to 1/3. pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
_ HEL pL(1  n2 )
K1D = (1 + Clne)s
"       !#
P+T N P+T N P M ð5Þ
Strain rate effect analysis based on JH-2 model A D A B
PHEL PHEL PHEL
From the above description of the general criterion for
ductile grinding, the critical value for SiC (0.06 mm) is where K1D represents the dynamic fracture toughness,
relatively small, which means that a ductile grinding of and L and n are the length of the material crack and the
this brittle material will only be conducted under either Poisson’s ratio, respectively. It can be found from this
micro-grinding or extremely lower material removal model that the strain rate shows a positive logarithmic
rate. According to impact fracture mechanics and correlation with the dynamic fracture toughness K1D.

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Wu et al. 1375

Table 1. Experimental conditions.

Type Content

Machine tool CNC cylindrical grinding machine MGKS1332/H

Grinding wheel Vitrified diamond wheel D91 V+ 2046 J1SC-23 C150 E
Grinding mode Up grinding
Wheel speed 20–150 m/s
Workpiece speed 3,001,200 mm/min
Depth of cut 220 mm
Cooling Water-based emulsion 5% at the speed of 10 L/min
Wheel spindle balancing system Model SB-4500 under 0.03 mm
Materials Reaction-sintered SiC

A new critical energy model for brittle–ductile

transition considering the wheel speed and chip
thickness
The strain rate is used to characterize the deformation
velocity of the workpiece material; it is the derivative of
the strain to the time. From equations (4) and (5), it can
be found that the strain rate has a great influence on
the material facture toughness. In the HSG, the increase
in the grinding speed will lead to an increase in the
strain rate substantially, and the strain rate can be cal-
culated through the wheel speed divided by the maxi-
mum chip thickness hcu. It can be expressed as follows40

Vs
e_ = ð6Þ
hcu

Equation (5) has shown that the fracture toughness

has a positive logarithmic correlation with the strain
rate. Therefore, in order to analyze dynamic impact Figure 1. Experiments schematic.
effect on the ductile grinding of brittle materials, the
new critical model based on the model proposed by From this model, it is obvious that the critical value
Bifano et al.13 is given below for brittle–ductile transition of brittle materials will be
    dependent on both the operation parameters and the
E KN1D 2 material properties. The critical value will be elevated
dnc = b  ð7Þ
HV HV by introducing the grinding wheel speed and chip thick-
ness, which means a higher removal rate can be
where dnc is the new critical model considering dynamic achieved under ductile grinding.
impact effect caused by the wheel speed. KN1D is the
new dynamic fracture toughness brought by the strain
Experiments
rate. Based on formula (5), the new dynamic fracture
toughness can be modeled as follows The detailed experimental conditions are given in
Table 1. The experiments were performed on the
KN1D = (a + blne_ )K1C ð8Þ MGKS1332/H CNC cylindrical grinding machine,
which is capable of running up to 8000 r/min with a
where K1C represents the static fracture toughness, 400-mm wheel. The workpiece material used for this
which is the same with the one in formula (1) and can work is SiC with the elastic modulus of 350 GPa, hard-
be applied in a low-speed grinding. a and b are the ness 23 GPa, static fracture toughness 3.5 MPa m1/2
material constants and will be decided by experiments. and passion ratio of 0.16. The grinding wheel was trued
Therefore, the new critical model for brittle–ductile using a diamond truer and dressed using an alumina
transition of brittle materials considering the wheel stick of 200 mesh size for 30 s under coolant before
speed and chip thickness can be obtained by adding experiments. The truing ratio for the grinding wheel is
equations (6) and (8) into (7) 0.8 under a wheel speed of 80 m/s, the depth of cut
  2     2 mm and the transverse feed rate of 400 mm/min.
VS E K1C 2 Figure 1 gives the detailed experiment layout. The
dnc = b a + b ln  ð9Þ
hcu HV HV material specimen in the top-right corner has a

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1376 Proc IMechE Part B: J Engineering Manufacture 230(8)

diameter of 60 mm and width of 20 mm. The workpiece

was cut into two pieces. And the smaller part will be
used to examine the ground surface and subsurface
fracture crack size by an environment scanning electron
microscope (ESEM) QUANTA 250 from Czech. A
bonded interface sectioning technique41 was adopted to
examine the grinding-induced subsurface damage. Two
parts of the material specimen were first polished and
then bonded together using a cyanoacrylate adhesive.
In order to minimize edge chipping and achieve a thin
adhesive layer joint, clamping pressure was applied dur-
ing bonding. The grinding direction was perpendicular
to the bonded interface. After grinding, the bonded spe-
cimens were subsequently separated through heating on
a hot plate to soften the bonding adhesive. Before the
scanning electron microscope (SEM) observation, the Figure 2. SEM for subsurface damage quantitative
ground specimens were cleaned with acetone in an characterization.
ultrasonic bath pool for at least 20 min, and then gold
coated. The grinding force detecting device is a three-
will be generated. In order to quantitatively analyze
direction force transducer (Kistler 9347C) mounted in
material removal mechanism and operation parameters’
the tailstock. The transducer is collected to a charge
effects on the workpiece material’s performance, the
amplifier, and then the collected signal is sent to the
average tangential and normal force for a single grit are
data acquisition system LMS.
given by calculating the ratio of grinding forces and
active grits, the following are the given equations
Results and discussions Fn Fn
Ps = Fng = = ð11Þ
Determination of material constants a and b NTotal Nd  lg  Bw
Lawn and Evans42 proposed a fracture mechanics Ft Ft
Ftg = = ð12Þ
model, which can provide a quantitative analysis of the NTotal Nd  lg  Bw
crack system in elastic/plastic indentation. The model
gives a clear description of the correlation between the where Fng and Ftg represent the average normal and
load P and crack size Cr, and can be given as tangential force of a single grit, respectively; Fn and Ft
follows42,43 are the whole normal and tangential grinding force
from experiments, respectively; NTotal is the active grits
 1=2
E Ps number in whole contact area; lg p isffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
the contact arc
K1C = z  3=2
ð10Þ length, written as lg = (1 + Vw =Vs ) ae  de ; and Bw is
HV Cr
the minor one between the wheel width and workpiece
where z is a constant related to the material property, width (in plunge grinding). In this article, the work-
taken to be 0.01643,44 based on experiments, and Cr is piece has a width of 20 mm, smaller than the wheel
the crack size. From the indentation fracture width of 22 mm.
mechanics42–44 and formula (10), it can be found that The crack size Cr was determined by the SEM pic-
the fracture toughness is positive to the relation ture illustrated in Figure 2. It is a typical quantitative
Ps =Cr3=2 . In grinding processes, the crack size Cr repre- characterization method for the subsurface damage
sents the subsurface damage layer depth and the load depth caused by the normal force. In order to deter-
Ps can be achieved by experiments, which is the normal mine the coefficients a and b in grinding of SiC, a series
force of single abrasive grit. This is because that the of experiments are listed in Table 2. The resulted load
normal force has the same vector direction with the and crack size are also given in this Table. Therefore,
crack propagating direction, while the tangential force by combining formulas (10) and (8), the constants a
is more connected to the surface fracture. As the grind- and b can be obtained through the experimental data in
ing process is a dynamic process under different strain Table 1. a and b are 21.64 and 0.675, respectively.
rate, the load and crack size will change accordingly.
Therefore, the K1C in formula (10) will be substituted
by the dynamic fracture toughness KN1D in formula (8), Model validation
and the correlation between the load and crack size In order to validate the new critical model established
acquired by experiments will be used to determine the in formula (9), a series of grinding experiments are con-
material constants a and b. ducted and the detailed process parameters are listed in
In grinding processes, when the abrasive grit inter- Table 3. The new predictive results for ductile grinding
acts with the workpiece materials, the grinding forces of SiC (under 10% fracture surface13) are also given in

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Wu et al. 1377

Table 2. Operation parameters for determination of coefficients a and b in grinding of SiC.

No. Vs (m/s) hcu (mm) Ps (N) Cr (mm)

1 20 0.52 0.194 95
2 80 0.52 0.124 60
3 140 0.52 0.106 35
4 140 1.04 0.218 63
5 140 1.8 0.482 90

Table 3. Predictive results for critical value under different grinding speed and chip thickness.

No. Vs (m/s) hcu (mm) Predictive dnc (mm) Brittle surface (%) Material removal mode

1 140 1.8 0.09 63 Brittle

2 20 1.04 0.007 52 Brittle
3 20 0.52 0.04 38 Brittle
4 140 0.32 0.32 9 Ductile
5 80 1.04 0.09 46 Brittle
6 80 0.52 0.16 35 Brittle
7 140 0.16 0.47 4 Ductile
8 140 1.04 0.15 32 Brittle
9 140 0.52 0.24 26 Brittle

this table. The SEM pictures for ground surface under From the above analysis, the new critical energy
these operation conditions are given in Figure 3. From model for brittle–ductile transition considering the
the SEM ground surface in Figure 3, it can be found grinding wheel speed and chip thickness effects can be
that the ground surface is characterized by both ductile expressed in formula (13). a and b are the material
flow and fracture cracks for the irregular distribution constants
of abrasive grits and machining process. The ductile ( h  i2   h i2
ground surface is characterized by scratching groove dnc = b a + b ln V E K1C
HV  HV
S
hcu ð13Þ
and tiny burrs compared with more concave pits and hcu 4dnc
coarse surface in the brittle ground surface. A grid
counting technique13 was devised to quantify the per-
centage of brittle surface in the whole surface. The
results are also presented in Table 3.
Discussions
It has been proved that the ductile grinding can be For SiC, the three-dimensional (3D) description for the
achieved only when the chip thickness hcu is smaller new critical energy model in formula (13) is plotted in
than the critical value dnc.26 The similar conclusion can Figure 4. In this figure, the curved surface is the critical
also be drawn in Table 3. In this table, when the chip value for the predictive model, while the plane is the
thickness hcu is higher than the predicted critical value criterion that the chip thickness is equal or below to the
dnc for brittle–ductile transition point, the ground sur- critical value. It is obvious that the increase in the
faces have more than 10% brittle surface, which is wheel speed will lead to an increase in the critical value,
defined as the brittle grinding. However, when the chip which is opposite to the chip thickness. Moreover, the
thickness hcu is equal or smaller than the predicted criti- ductile zone is under the predictive model curved sur-
cal value dnc, the ground surfaces have a brittle surface face when the chip thickness hcu is equal or smaller than
below 10%, which is defined as the ductile grinding. It the critical value, and it is indicated in the outward part
can be found from Table 3 that the chip thickness hcu of the space intersection between the two surfaces. The
for No. 4 has an equal value with the predicted value, remains are the zone that cannot achieve ductile grind-
resulting in a brittle surface lower than 10% in the ing of SiC.
fourth SEM picture in Figure 3. However, if the chip Based on the 3D description in Figure 4 and the
thickness hcu is much smaller than the predicted value, a ground surface in Figure 3, it can be concluded that the
more ductile ground surface can be obtained as shown critical value for ductile grinding of SiC can be
in the seventh SEM picture in Figure 3. In Figure 3, it improved by either elevation of the grinding wheel
can also be found from the two right columns that the speed or the reduction in chip thickness. However, the
increase in the wheel speed under a constant chip thick- increase in the grinding speed will not only help to
ness will lead to a better ductile surface, which means remove materials in ductile model but also increase
that the material is more inclined to ductile flow under the material removal volume and greatly improve the
a higher wheel speed.19 machining efficiency. However, the reduction in the

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1378 Proc IMechE Part B: J Engineering Manufacture 230(8)

Figure 3. Ground surface SEM pictures under different wheel speed and chip thickness.

Conclusion
Machining of hard and brittle materials will inevitably
cause microcracks and subsurface damage, and it is
always characterized by a complex removal mechanism
of both ductile and brittle mode removal. This article
proposed a new critical energy model for ductile grind-
ing considering the grinding wheel speed and chip thick-
ness effects. From this model, it has been proved that
the critical value for brittle–ductile transition of brittle
materials will not only be dependent on the materials
properties but also the wheel speed and chip thickness.
Moreover, the critical value varies under different oper-
ation conditions and can be elevated by introducing the
grinding wheel speed and chip thickness, which means a
higher removal rate can be achieved under ductile
Figure 4. 3D description for the critical model of SiC. grinding. It can also be concluded from this new model
that the increase in the wheel speed will lead to an
increase of the critical value, while the chip thickness
chip thickness will also help to increase the critical will lead to a negative drop in the critical value.
value for ductile grinding yet a reduction in the mate-
rial removal volume. Therefore, in order to achieve a
good surface finishing, application of HSG would be Acknowledgements
more efficient than conventional speed grinding under The authors wish to record their gratitude to their gen-
a small grinding depth. erous supports.

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Wu et al. 1379

Declaration of conflicting interests 12. Blake PN and Scattergood RO. Ductile-regime machin-
ing of germanium and silicon. J Am Ceram Soc 1990;
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest
73(4): 949–957.
with respect to the research, authorship and/or publica-
13. Bifano TG, Dow TA and Scattergood RO. Ductile-
tion of this article. regime grinding: a new technology for machining brittle
materials. J Eng Ind: T ASME 1991; 113(2): 184–189.
Funding 14. Venkatachalam S, Li X and Liang SY. Predictive model-
ing of transition undeformed chip thickness in ductile-
This work is supported in part by the National High regime micro-machining of single crystal brittle materials.
Technology Research and Development Program of J Mater Process Tech 2009; 209(7): 3306–3319.
China (2012AA041309), Innovation Funds of Donghua 15. Liu Y, Li B, Wu C, et al. Simulation-based evaluation of
University (CUSF-DH-D-2015100) and Morris M. surface micro -cracks and fracture toughness in high-
Bryan Jr Professorship for Advanced Manufacturing speed grinding of silicon carbide ceramics. Int J Adv
Systems. Manuf Tech. Epub ahead of print 28 December 2015.
DOI: 10.1007/s00170-015-8218-4.
Informed consent 16. Johnson GR and Holmquist TJ. An improved computa-
tional constitutive model for brittle materials. J Appl Phys
Additional informed consent was obtained from all
1994; 309: 981–984.
individual participants for whom identifying informa- 17. Klocke F, Brinksmeier E, Evans C, et al. High speed
tion is included in this article. grinding—fundamental and state of art in Europe, Japan
and USA. CIRP Ann: Manuf Techn 1997; 46(2): 715–
Research involving human participants and/or 724.
animals 18. Marinescu I, Rowe B, Yin L, et al. Abrasive processes.
In: Marinescu I, Tonshoff HK and Inasaki I (eds) Hand-
This article does not contain any studies with human book of ceramics grinding and polishing. Park Ridge, NJ:
participants or animals performed by any of the Noyes Publications, 2000, pp.94–189.
authors. 19. Kovach JA and Malkin S. A feasibility investigation of
high speed, low damage grinding for advanced ceramics,
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