Delay dynamical systems and applications to nonlinear machine-tool chatter

The stability behaviour of machine chatter that exhibits Hopf and degenerate bifurcations has been examined without the assumption of small delays between successive cuts. Delay dynamieal system theory leading to the reduction of the infinite-dimensional character of the governing delay differential equations (DDEs) to a finite-dimensional set of ordinary differential equations have been employed. The essential mathematical arguments for these systems in the context of retarded DDEs are summarized. Then the application of these arguments in the stability study of machine-tool chatter with multiple time delays is presented. Explicit analytical expressions ensuring stable and unstable machining when perturbations are periodic, stochastic and nonlinear have been derived using the integral averaging method and Lyapunov exponents. (C) 2003 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.