Experiment evaluation of grinding properties under Al₂O₃ nanofluids in minimum quantity lubrication

High use of conventional grinding fluid has great impact on environment. It is necessary now to develop environment friendly and work place friendly machining systems. The current study is to assess the Nanofluids Minimum Quantity Lubrication Technique (NFMQL) on different properties of grinding. The grinding of Inconel 718 under NFMQL was evaluated and compared with pure and flood lubrication grinding. Different concentrations (0.5 wt%, 1 wt%) of Al₂O₃ nano-particles were mixed in Palm and groundnut oil to prepare nanofluids. Experiment results revealed that vegetable oil based Al₂O₃ nanofluids achieved lower values of surface roughness, grinding energy, and coefficient of friction. NFMQL with 0.5% of Al₂O₃ has given the highest G- ratio, lowest grinding energy and coefficient of friction in comparison to pure MQL and flood grinding. NFMQL with 1% of Al₂O₃ ' has given lower value of surface roughness, which is due to better lubrication which allows the chips to slide away easily over the surface. Better performance of NFMQL might be attributed to low friction force at the tool/workpiece interface due to rolling effect of nano-particles and superior cooling performance. NFMQL helps in better material removal rate due to shearing and ploughing phenomenon of nano-particles at the workpiece. Therefore vegetable oil based NFMQL enhanced the tribological performance and thus can provide environmental and economic benefits to the industry. (paper)