Design and grinding performance evaluation of a bionic structured diamond grinding wheel based on multiscale leaf vein fractal mesh

To solve the problems of small chip holding space, poor lubrication and cooling performance, and easy clogging of grinding wheels when grinding hard and brittle materials with traditional grinding wheels (TGW), inspired by the leaf vein fractal mesh, drawing on their multiscale, fluidity, and heat dissipation characteristics, a novel laser biomimetic multiscale leaf vein structured diamond grinding wheel (MLVSGW) with macro/meso/micro features of leaf vein fractal mesh is proposed in this paper. Utilizing vein fractal parameters, including the width ratio, length ratio, and leaf vein density, a multiscale leaf vein fractal mesh model is constructed on the grinding wheel surface, and three kinds of MLVSGW with different growth stages are designed. The grinding performance of MLVSGW and TGW grinding ZrO₂ ceramics are compared. In comparison to TGW, MLVSGW can reduce normal and tangential grinding forces by up to 67.8% and 42.3%, and the surface roughness of ZrO₂ ceramics is effectively reduced by 29.4% after grinding. Furthermore, MLVSGW has better workpiece surface quality than TGW, especially the MLVSGW with large leaves pattern, which has optimal workpiece surface quality and grinding wheel wear resistance.