Centerless grinding is a manufacturing process in which it is possible to achieve high-precision finishes at high production rates. However, due to its special way of working it is particularly susceptible to self-induced vibrations and geometric instabilities. These instabilities during the grinding process are quite serious as it hinders obtaining the required geometrical tolerances and quality of the surface finish.
The manufacturers of centerless grinding machines are currently trying to reduce the problem of instabilities by moving to the customer's premises and setting up the machine on site for a specific application. However, if any variable in the application changes later on (dimensions of the part, grinding wheels, materials, etc.), the operators of the client company are often unable to optimise the process.
During this thesis, a mathematical model was developed that predicts the appearance of geometric instabilities for both in-feed and plunge centerless grinding. This model was implemented in MATLAB for later simulation in both the frequency and time domains. As a result of this simulation, stability maps were obtained for a wide range of machine configurations that clearly reflect work zones free of instabilities. Also, the temporal simulation produced graphs that reflect the evolution of the roundness error during grinding, so that, based on a specific configuration and an initial roundness error, the final error of the part can be quantified.