Numerical and Experimental Research on the Brushing Aluminium Alloy Mechanism Using an Abrasive Filament Brush

Abrasive filament brushes have been widely used in surface processes for a wide range of applications, including blending, edge-radiusing, and polishing. However, the associated brush mechanics of material removal is still not clear. In order to analyze the brush grinding of aluminium alloy, this paper constructed a kinematic model of a single filament, simulated the scratch process of a single abrasive grain, and investigated the brush force and material removal based on the finite element approach. The simulated result shows that the brush grinding can be changed from elastic-plastic deformation to chip formation when increasing the brush speed to 1000 r/min. The normal and tangential forces increase linearly and quadratically with the increase in the rotation speed (500-5000 r/min), respectively, and increase linearly with the increase in the penetration depth (0.1-1 mm), which is consistent with the experiment results. In addition, the amount of material removal initially increases with the increase in penetration depth, and then decreases. This paper provides a new approach to understanding the process of material removal and is helpful for the selection of reasonable brush parameters in the intelligent grinding control application.