Vibration Control Using Multilayer Piezoelectric Actuators: Towards Chatter Supression in Turning Operations

Chatter causes poor surface quality and damage to tools in machining. Therefore, strategies for chatter monitoring and reduction are constantly under investigation. Among these strategies, the use of piezoelectric layers embedded in the tool-holder as sensors/actuators for control strategies had been proposed for improving the stability limit reducing the system vibration. Nevertheless, actuators implemented using a single piezoelectric layer may fail to suppress chatter due to its limited actuation power. A method for assembling a series multilayer piezoelectric actuator is then proposed, which can provide a better performance and ultimately suppress chatter in turning operations. This actuator is used with passive and active control and the system response is investigated using frequency response functions. Two fixation conditions are tested to analyze the robustness of the control strategies. The results show that the use of a multilayer piezoelectric actuator made it possible for a greater reduction in vibration amplitude in the chatter frequency.