Simulation and active control of chatter in milling via a mechatronic simulator

This paper presents a 2 degree of freedom Hardware in the Loop mechatronic simulator for the study of regenerative chatter in milling. The main motivation behind the construction of the simulator is to propose active damping as a strategy for control of chatter in milling. A good comprehension of regenerative chatter in milling is essential for that purpose. Characterization of chatter in a real machining environment may be difficult, and the mechatronic simulator provides an alternative way to conduct investigations on chatter in milling in a laboratory environment, without conducting actual cutting tests. The simulator is found to realistically reproduce various kinds of bifurcation phenomena normally expected in milling operations. Active damping is then implemented on the system to investigate its effect on stability. It is shown experimentally that stability lobes are enhanced by the application of active damping, which fulfils the original objective of proposing active damping as a chatter stabilizing strategy.