An experimental investigation of chatter effects on tool life

Tool wear is one of the most important considerations in machining operations as it affects surface quality and integrity, productivity and cost. The most commonly used model for tool life analysis is the one proposed by F.W. Taylor about a century ago. Although the extended form of this equation includes the effects of important cutting conditions on tool wear, tool life studies are mostly performed under stable cutting conditions where the effect of chatter vibrations are not considered. This paper presents an empirical attempt to understand tool life under vibratory cutting conditions. Tool wear data are collected in turning and milling on different work materials under stable and chatter conditions. The effects of cutting conditions as well as severity of chatter on tool life are analyzed. The results indicate significant reduction in tool life due to chatter as expected. They also show that the severity of chatter, and thus the vibration amplitude, strongly reduces the life of cutting tools. These results can be useful in evaluating the real cost of chatter by including the reduced tool life. They can also be useful in justifying the cost of chatter suppression and more rigid machining systems

Percolation in living neural networks

We study living neural networks by measuring the neurons' response to a global electrical stimulation. Neural connectivity is lowered by reducing the synaptic strength, chemically blocking neurotransmitter receptors. We use a graph-theoretic approach to show that the connectivity undergoes a percolation transition. This occurs as the giant component disintegrates, characterized by a power law with critical exponent $\beta \simeq 0.65$ is independent of the balance between excitatory and inhibitory neurons and indicates that the degree distribution is gaussian rather than scale freeComment: PACS numbers: 87.18.Sn, 87.19.La, 64.60.Ak http://www.weizmann.ac.il/complex/tlusty/papers/PhysRevLett2006.pd

Molecular Model of the Contractile Ring

We present a model for the actin contractile ring of adherent animal cells. The model suggests that the actin concentration within the ring and consequently the power that the ring exerts both increase during contraction. We demonstrate the crucial role of actin polymerization and depolymerization throughout cytokinesis, and the dominance of viscous dissipation in the dynamics. The physical origin of two phases in cytokinesis dynamics ("biphasic cytokinesis") follows from a limitation on the actin density. The model is consistent with a wide range of measurements of the midzone of dividing animal cells.Comment: PACS numbers: 87.16.Ka, 87.16.Ac http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16197254 http://www.weizmann.ac.il/complex/tlusty/papers/PhysRevLett2005.pd

The role of tool geometry in process damped milling

The complex interaction between machining structural systems and the cutting process results in machining instability, so called chatter. In some milling scenarios, process damping is a useful phenomenon that can be exploited to mitigate chatter and hence improve productivity. In the present study, experiments are performed to evaluate the performance of process damped milling considering different tool geometries (edge radius, rake and relief angles and variable helix/pitch). The results clearly indicate that variable helix/pitch angles most significantly increase process damping performance. Additionally, increased cutting edge radius moderately improves process damping performance, while rake and relief angles have a smaller and closely coupled effect

Thermodynamics and structure of self-assembled networks

We study a generic model of self-assembling chains which can branch and form networks with branching points (junctions) of arbitrary functionality. The physical realizations include physical gels, wormlike micells, dipolar fluids and microemulsions. The model maps the partition function of a solution of branched, self-assembling, mutually avoiding clusters onto that of a Heisenberg magnet in the mathematical limit of zero spin components. The model is solved in the mean field approximation. It is found that despite the absence of any specific interaction between the chains, the entropy of the junctions induces an effective attraction between the monomers, which in the case of three-fold junctions leads to a first order reentrant phase separation between a dilute phase consisting mainly of single chains, and a dense network, or two network phases. Independent of the phase separation, we predict the percolation (connectivity) transition at which an infinite network is formed that partially overlaps with the first-order transition. The percolation transition is a continuous, non thermodynamic transition that describes a change in the topology of the system. Our treatment which predicts both the thermodynamic phase equilibria as well as the spatial correlations in the system allows us to treat both the phase separation and the percolation threshold within the same framework. The density-density correlation correlation has a usual Ornstein-Zernicke form at low monomer densities. At higher densities, a peak emerges in the structure factor, signifying an onset of medium-range order in the system. Implications of the results for different physical systems are discussed.Comment: Submitted to Phys. Rev.

Evidence for Thermal Equilibration in Multifragmentation Reactions probed with Bremsstrahlung Photons

The production of nuclear bremsstrahlung photons (E$_{\gamma}>$ 30 MeV) has been studied in inclusive and exclusive measurements in four heavy-ion reactions at 60{\it A} MeV. The measured photon spectra, angular distributions and multiplicities indicate that a significant part of the hard-photons are emitted in secondary nucleon-nucleon collisions from a thermally equilibrated system. The observation of the thermal component in multi-fragment $^{36}$Ar+$^{197}$Au reactions suggests that the breakup of the thermalized source produced in this system occurs on a rather long time-scale.Comment: Revised version, accepted for publication in Physical Review Letters. 4 pages, 4 fig

Sources of nonlinearities, chatter generation and suppression in metal cutting

The mechanics of chip formation has been revisited in order to understand functional relationships between the process and the technological parameters. This has led to the necessity of considering the chip-formation process as highly nonlinear, with complex interrelations between its dynamics and thermodynamics. In this paper a critical review of the state of the art of modelling and the experimental investigations is outlined with a view to how the nonlinear dynamics perception can help to capture the major phenomena causing instabilities (chatter) in machining operations. The paper is concluded with a case study, where stability of a milling process is investigated in detail, using an analytical model which results in an explicit relation for the stability limit. The model is very practical for the generation of the stability lobe diagrams, which is time consuming when using numerical methods. The extension of the model to the stability analysis of variable pitch cutting tools is also given. The application and verification of the method are demonstrated by several examples

In-Medium Effects on K0 Mesons in Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collisions

We present the transverse momentum spectra and rapidity distributions of $\pi^{-}$ and K$^0_S$ in Ar+KCl reactions at a beam kinetic energy of 1.756 A GeV measured with the spectrometer HADES. The reconstructed K$^0_S$ sample is characterized by good event statistics for a wide range in momentum and rapidity. We compare the experimental $\pi^{-}$ and K$^0_S$ distributions to predictions by the IQMD model. The model calculations show that K$^0_S$ at low tranverse momenta constitute a particularly well suited tool to investigate the kaon in-medium potential. Our K$^0_S$ data suggest a strong repulsive in-medium K$^0$ potential of about 40 MeV strength.Comment: 10 pages, 10 figures, accepted by Phys. Rev.

Hydrodynamic interactions in colloidal ferrofluids: A lattice Boltzmann study

We use lattice Boltzmann simulations, in conjunction with Ewald summation methods, to investigate the role of hydrodynamic interactions in colloidal suspensions of dipolar particles, such as ferrofluids. Our work addresses volume fractions $\phi$ of up to 0.20 and dimensionless dipolar interaction parameters $\lambda$ of up to 8. We compare quantitatively with Brownian dynamics simulations, in which many-body hydrodynamic interactions are absent. Monte Carlo data are also used to check the accuracy of static properties measured with the lattice Boltzmann technique. At equilibrium, hydrodynamic interactions slow down both the long-time and the short-time decays of the intermediate scattering function $S(q,t)$, for wavevectors close to the peak of the static structure factor $S(q)$, by a factor of roughly two. The long-time slowing is diminished at high interaction strengths whereas the short-time slowing (quantified via the hydrodynamic factor $H(q)$) is less affected by the dipolar interactions, despite their strong effect on the pair distribution function arising from cluster formation. Cluster formation is also studied in transient data following a quench from $\lambda = 0$; hydrodynamic interactions slow the formation rate, again by a factor of roughly two

Managing the Marine Aquarium Trade: Revealing the Data Gaps Using Ornamental Polychaetes

The marine aquarium industry has great potential to generate jobs in low-income coastal communities creating incentives for the maintenance of a healthy coral reef, if effectively managed. In the absence of current monitoring or legislation to govern the trade, baseline information regarding the species, number and source location of animals traded is missing despite being critical for its successful management and sustainability. An industry assessment to establish the number and provenance of species of ornamental polychaetes (sabellids and serpulids) traded was undertaken across UK wholesalers and retailers. Six geographical regions exporting fan worms were identified. Singapore contributed the highest percentage of imports, but of only one worm “type” whereas Bali, the second largest source, supplied five different worm “types”. Over 50% of UK retailers were supplied by one wholesaler while the remainder were stocked by a mixture of one other wholesaler and/or direct imports from the source country. We estimate that up to 18,500 ornamental polychaetes (16,980 sabellids and 1,018 serpulids) are sold annually in the UK revealing a drastic underestimation of currently accepted trade figures. Incorrect identification (based on exporting region or visual characteristics) of traded animals exacerbates the inaccuracy in market quantification, although identification of preserved sabellids using published keys proved just as inconclusive with high within-species variability and the potential for new or cryptic species. A re-description of the polychaete groups traded using a combination of molecular and morphological techniques is necessary for effective identification and market quantification. This study provides the first assessment of ornamental polychaetes but more importantly highlights the issues surrounding the collection of baseline information necessary to manage the aquarium trade. We recommend that future management should be community based and site-specific with financial and educational support from NGOs, local governments and industry members