Formulating a numerically low-cost method of a constrained layer damper for vibration suppression in thin-walled component milling and experimental validation

Due to its low stiffness and time-varying modal parameters, thin-walled workpiece milling is still a challenging problem. In order to reveal the influence of the relative position between the cutter and workpiece on the dynamic response of the flexible thin-walled component, and optimize the parameters of the constrained layer damper applied to suppress the machining vibration in thin-walled workpiece peripheral milling process, with assumption of chatter-free milling operation, a dynamic model of thin plate peripheral milling with constrained layer damper subjected to moving cutting force using Lagrange equation is proposed based on the first shear deformation theory. Considering the complexity and variability of the boundary conditions of workpiece in practical machining processes, a mixed Rayleigh-Ritz solution together with Courant's penalty method and differential quadrature method is presented to evaluate the damping performance and dynamic response. Courant's penalty method is used to handle the complex and changing boundary conditions, Rayleigh-Ritz method is employed to deal with the spatial partial derivatives, and differential quadrature method is applied to treat the temporal derivatives. The influence of the relative position between cutter and workpiece on dynamic response is investigated, and the response of milling position are calculated using presented technique and compared with the results measured through milling tests. The results show that an acceptable agreement between numerical and experimental results can be obtained and the present technique is efficient to estimate the dynamic response of thin plate milling. Additionally, the parametric study of constrained layer damper is performed through evaluating the root-mean-square of response, and the results can be used to optimize the parameters of the constrained layer damper for suppressing machining vibration and improving surface finish accuracy.