Nanomechanical characterization of RB-SiC ceramics based on nanoindentation and modelling of the ground surface roughness

Abstract Reaction bonded silicon carbide (RB-SiC) ceramics are the primary structure and mold materials for the optical industry and mostly are machined by means of ultra-precision grinding to achieve a satisfactory surface quality. However, it is not easy to attain the theoretical prediction of surface quality, particularly surface roughness, because of different mechanical characterization of Si/SiC phases inside the RB-SiC ceramics. In this work, the nanoindentation tests were performed to investigate the nanomechanical characterization of individual phase inside the RB-SiC ceramics. On the basis of the nanoindentation results of RB-SiC, a theoretical model was established to predict surface roughness in the ultra-precision grinding process, which considered the different removal mechanisms of Si matrix and SiC particles. The comparison of the prediction results of existing and novel models and single-factor experimental results shows that the novel model was well consistent with the experiment.