Dynamic Analysis on Feed System of Gantry Machine Tool Considering Thermal-Mechanical Coupling

Gantry machine tool feed system has the characteristics of long travel, complex loads and multi-thermal sources, so the dynamic performance of the feed system is a thermal mechanical coupling problem. In order to study the law of thermal-mechanical coupling affecting on gantry machine feed system's dynamic performance, a method for dynamic analysis modeling by combining finite element simulation and experiment was proposed based on the thermal-mechanical coupling theoretical analysis. According to the proposed method, after conducting the thermal-mechanical vibration steady-state and transient analysis on gantry machine tool feed system studied, the conclusions obtained are as follows: Before the whole feed system reaches thermal balance state, feed system's thermal energy increasing continually results in the thermal energy transforming into mechanical energy, which makes the vibration amplitude of the feed system increasing continually and makes the feed system getting a new natural frequency. Therefore, in the gantry machine tool feed system's analysis and design process, the influence of thermal mechanical coupling on the vibration performance must be considered.