A general approach to simulating workpiece vibrations during five-axis milling of turbine blades

Workpiece vibrations have a significant influence on the machining process and on the quality of the resulting workpiece surface, particularly when milling thin-walled components. In this paper a simulation system, consisting of an FE model of the workpiece coupled with a geometric milling simulation for computing regenerative workpiece vibrations during the five-axis milling process, is presented. Additionally, a modeling method for visualizing the resulting surface is described. In order to validate the simulation model, turbine blades were machined and the experimental results were compared to the simulation results.