Whirling vibration of drilling shaft in minimal quantity lubrication deep hole drilling using theoretical and experimental investigation

Abstract

Under the concept of safety, improving efficiency, or reducing costs in deep hole drilling, the effect of minimal quantity lubrication (MQL) on the dynamic characteristics of drilling shaft is analyzed. A model is presented to describe the pressure function of MQL cutting fluid during drilling process. This model is based on the compressible Reynolds equation in air/oil feature with nonlinearity, and the differential transformation theory is introduced to solve the time-dependent pressure equation satisfied with MQL cutting fluid. Further, with an emphasis on model development, experiments are performed to validate the correctness and effectiveness of the above methods. A series of experimental investigations are carried out on the whirling characteristics of drilling shaft when the rotational speed and drilling depth are changed. Additionally, the vibration trajectories of drilling shaft and the surface roughness of hole are detected under different experimental conditions such as MQL drilling or traditional drilling. The results show that the whirling trajectory of drilling shaft decreases significantly in MQL deep hole drilling but the surface roughness of machined hole is worse due to surface scratches or scales. Nevertheless, there exists an optimal rotational speed of drilling shaft to improve machining precision of hole surface. These results indicate that the MQL method has shown potential to be even more productive as compared to traditional drilling and that the proposed method in this paper can lay a foundation for investigating the dynamic stability of drilling shaft in MQL drilling.