Theoretical model of brittle material removal fraction related to surface roughness and subsurface damage depth of optical glass during precision grinding

Brittle material removal fraction (BRF) is defined as the area fraction of brittle material removed on machined surface. In the present study, a novel theoretical model of BRF was proposed based on indentation profile caused by intersecting of lateral cracks. The proposed model is related to surface roughness and the subsurface damage (SSD) depth of optical glass during precision grinding. To investigate the indentation profile, indentation tests of K9 optical glass were conducted using single random-shape diamond grains. The experimental results indicate that the indentation profile is an exponent function. To verify the proposed BRF model, BRF, surface roughness and SSD depth of K9 optical glasses were investigated by a series of grinding experiments with different cutting depths. The experimental results show that BRF is dependent on surface roughness and SSD depth. The relationship between BRF, surface roughness and SSD depth is in good accordance with the proposed theoretical model. The proposed BRF model is a reasonable approach for estimating surface roughness and SSD depth during precision grinding of optical glass.