Numerical Exploration of Machining Vibration Effect on Cutting Stability in Orthogonal Milling Using Cutting Forces

Numerical machining using simulation software is nowadays one of the tools capable of determining several physical quantities, such as cutting forces, and of identifying phenomena occurring during machining, such as chatter. This work aims to study the stability in the milling process through numerical measurements of cutting forces, in order to establish a stability lobe using Abaqus software, for half-immersion up-milling. The stability lobe found numerically was compared to a reference stability lobe from literature. The Johnson-Cook laws of behavior and damage are used for the workpiece, and an explicit scheme and a Lagrangian formulation are adopted. A minimum chip setting which ensures the initiation of the material removal is introduced based on numerical measurements, and experimental results from literature. The simulations are made for a single tooth and a single pass. Three states of stability are identified, by measuring numerically the cutting forces, for some cutting speeds: stable cut, unstable cut, and stability limit cut. Thus, we were able to establish numerically a stability lobe, linking the cutting speed to the cut depth. The obtained numerical stability lobe is not too different from the one of reference, yielding to conclude that the used numerical approach can predict the cutting stability accurately.