Research question
Why does material removal change with belt wear even under constant normal force, and can single-grain mechanics explain it?
Method
Grain geometry, distribution and wear are used to separate rubbing, ploughing and cutting and calculate penetration and force. The grain-level description is then aggregated into tangential-force and material-removal models.
Main findings
Robotic grinding tests on 304 stainless steel reproduced the changing trends of tangential force and removal rate as the belt wore. Enlarged wear flats and reduced grain penetration weaken cutting, providing a mechanism-based basis for wear-aware parameter adjustment.