Deterministic and stochastic components of regular surface texture generated by a special grinding process

Regular surface texture may be generated by an unconventional grinding operation. The simple version of the method consists in grinding with the wheel having helical grooves which are deeper than the grinding depth. The wheel active surface is reproduced on the work-material in the form of regularly arranged grooves separated from each other. Regular surface texture consists of two components: deterministic, resulting from the nominal wheel surface, and stochastic, resulting from the random shape and arrangement of abrasive grains. Simulations and experiments revealed the limited contribution of the stochastic component of the surface structure of the work-material. Random arrangement of abrasive grains is important only at local (micro) level and affects the roughness of groove bottoms, while the dimensions and arrangement of the grooves are affected only to a minimal degree.