Crack Branching as a Mechanism of Crushing During Grinding

A crushing model, based on a crack‐branching mechanism of crushing, an elastic analysis of the stress distribution, and a critical stress, intensity factor criterion for the extent of crack propagation, was used to estimate the extent of crushing under a diamond point subjected to an inclined load. The depths of the crushed region were compared with the groove depths formed in several materials during single‐point grinding under similar loading conditions. Good agreement was observed between the absolute values of the groove depths and crushing depths, and the load dependence of these values for soda‐lime glass. In the case of silicon nitride and silicon carbide, there was good agreement between the calculated and the experimental load dependencies but the absolute values of the experimentally determined groove depths were somewhat smaller than the calculated crushing depths.