On the Effect of Distributed Regenerative Delay on the Stability Lobe Diagrams of Milling Processes

Abstract

Regenerative machine tool chatter is investigated for milling operations with helical tools. The stability of a two-degrees-of-freedom milling model is analyzed, where the cutting-force is modeled as a force system distributed along the rake face of the tool. Introducing a distributed force system instead of a concentrated cutting-force results in an additional short, periodically varying distributed delay in the governing equations of the system. It is shown that the additional delay significantly affects the stability of the machining operation, especially at low spindle speeds. This phenomenon is referred to as the short regenerative effect, and is studied by computing the stability lobe diagrams of milling operations via the semi-discretization technique. The sensitivity of the stability charts to the shape of the force distribution and the contact length between the chip and tool is investigated.