Chatter prediction for uncertain parameters

The occurrence of chatter in milling processes was investigated in this study. The prediction of the stability lobes of metal cutting processes requires a model of the cutting force and a model of the dynamic machine tool behavior. Parameter uncertainties in the models may lead to significant differences between the predicted and measured stability behavior. One approach towards robust stability consists of running a large number of simulations with a random sample of uncertain parameters and determining the confidence levels for the chatter vibrations, which is a time-consuming task. In this paper, an efficient implementation of the multi frequency solution and the construction of an approximate solution is presented. The approximate solution requires the explicit calculation of the multi frequency solution only at a few parameter points, and the approximation error can be kept small. This study found that the calculation of the robust stability lobe diagram, which is based on the approximate solution, is significantly more efficient than an explicit calculation at all random parameter points. The numerically determined robust stability diagrams were in good agreement with the experimentally determined stability lobes.