Modeling regenerative workpiece vibrations in five-axis milling

During milling—especially of thin-walled components—the dynamic behavior of the workpiece-tool-machine-system influences the milling process and particularly the quality of the resulting workpiece surface. This article focuses on the presentation of a simulation concept for predicting regenerative workpiece vibrations, which combines a finite element model for analyzing the dynamic behavior of the workpiece with a time domain simulation for the five-axis milling process. Both concepts, their linking, and the experimental setup for verifying the simulation will be described. A comparison of the simulation results with the data measured in experiments with regard to the vibration frequencies as well as the surface quality will be given.