Investigation of a cutting state-independent method for identifying in-process frequency response functions of the micro milling system

Conveniently obtaining the in-process frequency response functions (FRFs) of micro milling tool is a very difficult task due to the small diameter. This article presents a method to identify the in-process FRFs of micro milling tool based on actual cutting tests, which can be at either stable or chatter cutting state. According to mode superposition principle, the in-process FRFs are predicted by integrating the mode shape with the pole, which includes damping ratio and natural frequency. The in-process mode shape of tool is modeled as being consistent with that corresponding to static state, and thus, it is calculated from the tool’s static state by combining receptance coupling substructure analysis (RCSA) with Timoshenko beam theory. The poles of in-process FRFs are acquired by modal analysis of the response signals from actual micro milling tests. To do this, cutting forces are used as excitation signals, and the velocities of tool are selected as response signals and they are measured from actual micro milling tests. With the aid of editing cepstrum and hampel outlier processing methods, a filtering method is established to remove the harmonic and useless chatter components involved in the response signals. As a result, the finally obtained FRFs are not influenced by the noises in the measured response signals, and the effectiveness of this method is verified by a series of modal tests and micro milling tests.