Measurement-Based Modal Analysis and Stability Prediction on Turn-Milling of Hollow Turbine Blade

Abstract

Hollow blades with honeycomb structures are increasingly used in the turbine engines for reducing weight and saving costs. The hollow blade is a typical thin-walled structural part with low stiffness, the machining system of which is often unstable and likely to chatter. The most effective solution to avoid the machining chatter is to guide the hollow blade to be machined in a stable machining zone. This paper proposes a measurement-based approach for modal analysis and stability prediction of turn-milling hollow blade. The impact test was carried out to achieve the FRF curves on the hollow blade and the milling tool. An extremum method was employed to obtain an equivalent FRF curve, from which the modal parameters involving the natural frequency, damping ratio, and stiffness were computed. Afterwards, the semidiscretization method was used to draw a stability lobe diagram to predict the stability when turn-milling hollow blades. The experimental results confirm the feasibility of the predicted stability lobe diagram.