Abstract: A finite element simulation model is presented for calculating surface residual stress when grinding nanostructured WC/12Co coatings with diamond wheel. Ignoring phase transformation, ANSYS parameter design language (APDL) of ANSYS software was applied to complete the whole process which was composed of establishing model, defining material properties, meshing the model, loading and solution. In this model, a movable uniform thermal flux and grinding force distribution were taken into account in the analysis. Experimental research on residual stresses in ground n-WC/Co coating has been undertaken with diamond wheel and some results of residual stresses have been gotten under different grinding conditions. It’s found that the values of residual stress from the tests are accordant with those from the finite element model, which shows the validity of the finite element model.

Key words: Finite element analysis, Nanostructured WC/12Co coating, Precision surface grinding, Residual stress