Analysis of the Chatter instability in a nonlinear model for drilling

In this paper we present stability analysis of a non-linear model for chatter vibration in a drilling operation. The results build our previous work [Stone, E., and Askari, A., 2002, "Nonlinear Models of Chatter in Drilling Processes," Dyn. Syst., 17(1), pp. 65-85 and Stone, E., and Campbell, S. A., 2004, "Stability and Bifurcation Analysis of a Nonlinear DDE Model for Drilling," J. Nonlinear Sci., 14(1), pp. 27-57], where the model was developed and the nonlinear stability of the vibration modes as cutting width is varied was presented. Here we analyze the effect of varying cutting depth. We show that qualitatively different stability lobes are produced in this case. We analyze the criticality of the Hopf bifurcation associated with loss of stability and show that changes in criticality can oocur along the stability boundary, resulting in extra periodic solutions.