Efficient thermo-mechanical model of a precision 5-axis machine tool

Abstract

Thermally induced deviations of machine tools result in geometric errors of manufactured parts. Thermo-mechanical models are a great asset in order to predict the thermal response of machine tools and understand the thermal design. This paper presents a thermo-mechanical model of a 5-axis precision machine tool, focusing on the thermal response during the rotation of the C-axis. In order to reduce the computational effort, this work uses a surrogate model by means of projection-based Model Order Reduction (MOR). The model setup, reduction, and analysis are performed in MORe, an simulation package designed for the development of efficient model of machine tools. The response of the thermo-mechanical model is compared to the measured thermo-mechanical deviations during the rotation of the C-axis. The validated thermo-mechanical model enables analysis of the thermal design of the machine tool, in frequency and in time domain.