Experimental investigation into the effect of magnetorheological fluid damper on vibration and chatter in straight turning process

Magneto-Rheological (MR) dampers have received a great deal of attention in recent years due to the potential of offering semi-active control. MR dampers have been successfully applied in the vibration control of several machining processes. However, the effect of the material of the damper's fluid chamber on its magnetic prop-erties has not been studied much. In this study, an MR damper has been designed to control the chatter vibration of the straight turning operation. The magnetic properties of the MR damper are simulated in the FEM software COMSOL Multiphysics with two types of steel AISI 410 and AISI 1018, and the material with the best perfor-mance for constructing the fluid chamber is determined. Then, the MR damper with an assembly to hold the cutting tool was fabricated and experimentally tested during straight turning operation and its effect on the tool vibration, and work surface roughness was analyzed. From the result, it was observed that the MR damper reduced tool vibration and chatter effectively. The results obtained in this research confirm that the application of the MR damper in the straight-turning process can either suppress the chatter or greatly reduce the frequency amplitude of the chatter. The reduction of the tool's acceleration amplitude with the MR damper was more intense in the condition of chatter suppression and reached up to 89.42 %. Moreover, the MR damper reduced the roughness of the machining surface. This reduction was higher in cases where the chatter was suppressed and it was observed up to 29 %.