Abstract: To reveal the effect of pre-stressing on grinding hardening process and micro-surface， single grain cutting simulations on test specimens made of 45 steel under action of different pre-stresses were carried out by using DEFORM-3D based on the thermal-elastic-plastic finite element theory. The equivalent strain， groove depth， surface layer microstructure as well as the micro-surface were analyzed by simulation and experiment of pre-stressed hardening grinding process. The results indicate that pre-stressing has little effect on thermal-mechanical equivalent strain， but has obvious effect on microstructure transformation which has indirect effect on surface roughness by affecting the dislocation density and grain size. As the pre-stress increases within a low range， the groove depth decreases and the surface roughness value reduces. However， once the pre-stress exceeds a certain value， surface fold appears and surface roughness value increases instead.

Key words: pre-stressed hardening grinding, equivalent strain, groove depth, surface roughness, simulation and experiment