Analytical Prediction of the Critical Depth of Cut and Worst Spindle Speeds for Chatter in End Milling

The frequency response function (FRF) method has been well used to determine the worst spindle speeds and their critical limiting chip width for turning operation by finding the maximum negative real part of the FRF. In this study, a modified FRF concept is adapted for a 2 DOF milling system of planar isotropic dynamics to determine the worst spindle speeds and the critical limiting axial depth of cut in explicit, analytic formulas. Analogous to the formulation of worst spindle speeds, similar expression for the best spindle speeds is also obtained. The modified FRF is obtained by multiplying the original FRF of the structure with a complex scaling factor, corresponding to a scaling and a rotation of its original Nyquist plot. The scaling factor is determined analytically from the system characteristic equation with the radial cutting constant and radial immersion angle as the major system parameters. Through the presented method, it is also shown that the worst spindle speeds for a milling operation can be found without the prior knowledge of modal dynamics and stability lobe diagram. The proposed analytical expressions are confirmed by the existing stability models and experimentally verified.