Experimental and Numerical Study of the Coolants Distributor for Machining Process

Grinding is a machining process which may encounter excessive heat generated by the friction between the wheel and the material, and therefore degrade the tool as well as the material. The heat has hence, to be removed as efficiently as possible, most often by external cooling. The fluid is projected on the hot interface between the tool and the material through a curved duct coolant distributor. The performance of such a system is strongly dependent on the fluid flow in the curved duct and on the impinging jet flow properties. To optimize cooling setup, CFD simulations and in-situ experiments using particle image velocimetry (PIV) have been made, as well as global flow rate and pressure measurements in the curved duct. A three-dimensional model of a curved duct with 25 outlet nozzles has been studied for duct Reynolds number up to 100,000. Different geometrical configurations for various nozzle diameters have been studied. Due to the complexity of the distributor geometry, it is shown that the global hydraulic balance is not appropriate for sizing the industrial process. On the contrary, satisfactory trend matching in fluid flow streamline behavior is between numerical and experimental results, and an accurate prediction of the pressure drop both show that the numerical simulation is reliable to capture the flow pattern within the curved channel distributor.