Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2015) 77:1499–1511
DOI 10.1007/s00170-014-6562-4
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Investigations on the effects of tool wear on chip
formation mechanism and chip morphology using acoustic
emission signal in the microendmilling of aluminum alloy
M. Prakash & M. Kanthababu & K. P. Rajurkar
Received: 29 July 2013 / Accepted: 28 October 2014 / Published online: 12 November 2014
# Springer-Verlag London 2014
Abstract This work investigates the effects of tool wear on
surface roughness (Ra), chip formation mechanisms and chip
morphology in the microendmilling of aluminum alloy (AA
1100) using acoustic emission (AE) signals. The acquired AE
signals are analysed in the time domain, frequency domain
using fast Fourier transformation (FFT) and the discrete wave-
let transformation (DWT) technique. The time domain analy-
sis indicates that the root mean square of the AE (AERMS)
signals is sensitive to the formation of the buildup edge apart
from effective machining. The frequency domain analysis
indicates that the dominant frequency of the AE signals lies
between 150 and 300 kHz. The AE-specific energies are
computed by decomposing the AE signals in different fre-
quency bands, using the DWT technique. The higher and
lower orders of AE-specific energies are obtained. The higher
order of AE-specific energies indicates chip formation mech-
anisms such as shearing and microfracture. Chip morphology
studies are carried out using the FFT analysis. The FFT
indicates that low-frequency and low-amplitude AE lead to
tight curl chips, while high-frequency and high-amplitude AE
lead to elemental/short comma chips. This work provides new
significant inferences on tool wear, chip formation mecha-
nisms and chip morphology in the microendmilling of AA
1100.
M. Prakash : M. Kanthababu (*)
Department of Manufacturing Engineering, College of Engineering
Guindy, Anna University, Chennai 600 025, India
e-mail: kb@annauniv.edu
K. P. Rajurkar
Center for Non-Traditional Manufacturing Research, Industrial and
Management System Engineering, University of Nebraska–Lincoln,
Lincoln, NE 68588-0518, USA
Keywords Microendmilling . Acousticemission . Toolwear .
Chip formation mechanism . Chip morphology . Discrete
wavelet transformation . Fast Fourier transformation
1 Introduction
The increasing demand for miniaturized products in various
applications, such as biomedical implants, integrated circuits
and micro-satellites, leads to the development of tool-based
micromachining processes. Tool-based micromachining,
commonly known as mechanical micromachining, is a
manufacturing technology that uses a solid micro-tool with
geometrically defined cutting edges, in the subtractive fabri-
cation of devices or features with at least some of their
dimensions in the micrometer range (1–999 μm) [1].
Subsequently, the dimension is adapted to 500 μm [2, 3]. A
tool-based micromachining differs from macro-regime ma-
chining in terms of size effect and uncut chip thickness [4].
Microendmilling is one of the tool-based micromachining
processes, used for producing micro-components such as
micro-moulds, micro-dies, micro-channels, micro-gears, mi-
cro-propellers, micro-fluidic devices, micro-heat sinks and
micro-heat exchangers. In microendmilling, normally, the di-
ameter of the endmill is comparable to the size of the cutting
edge radius or material grain size. Microendmilling is carried
out with a microendmill, of a size less than 500 μm, with a
cutting edge radius of up to 2 μm. The advantage of
microendmilling is that it is capable of removing a wide range
of materials in three dimensions with complex features and
high aspect ratios [4, 5]. However, the quality of the
microendmilled components as well as the formation of chips
and their morphology depends upon the condition (good or
worn out) of the tool. Therefore, monitoring the tool wear,
chip formation mechanism and chip morphology is an
1500
important requirement, especially in the microendmilling en-
vironment [6–10].
Various methods of tool wear monitoring have been pro-
posed in the earlier studies [9–12]. These methods are classi-
fied as direct tool condition monitoring (TCM) systems, viz.
optical, radioactive, electrical resistance, etc. and indirect
TCM systems, viz. acoustic emission (AE), cutting force,
vibration, etc. [13–16]. Recently, researchers have shown
keen interest in the use of indirect methods for the TCM
system, due to its productivity and reliability [17]. Among
the different types of sensors used in the indirect methods for
monitoring the tool, the AE sensor is found to be one of the
most effective [18–22]. The major advantage of using the AE
signals for monitoring the tool condition is that the frequency
range of the AE signals is much higher than that of the
Fig. 1 Various sources of AE
generation [30]
Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2015) 77:1499–1511
machine vibrations and environmental noises [19]. AE is the
elastic strain wave released rapidly from the surface of the
work material, when subjected to the force [18]. Generally,
during machining, it is observed that the generation of the AE
signals is in the form of burst and continuous [18–20]. The
burst AE signals are qualitatively described as high-amplitude
and high-frequency waves that occur during chip breaking
and tool chipping within the material. The continuous AE
signals are described as low frequency and low amplitude
generated from the primary, secondary and tertiary deforma-
tion zones during machining. As the AE generation originates
due to the plastic deformation process, it is also used to study
the chip formation mechanism in machining [23–27].
The literature review related to tool wear monitoring using
the AE sensor, chip formation mechanism and chip
Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2015) 77:1499–1511
morphology is briefly discussed here. Dolinsek et al. [9]
estimated the tool life and tool wear mechanisms (adhesion,
abrasion, diffusion, oxidation, fatigue wear and plastic defor-
mation) using the acquired AE signals, while turning steel
alloy. They have established that the increase in the tool wear
leads to higher AE energy and the dominant frequency is
found to be in the range between 2.5 and 6.0 kHz. Haber
et al. [10] correlated the tool wear with the acquired AE
signals in a high-speed macro-regime endmilling. The ac-
quired AE signals are analysed in the time and frequency
domains. They observed that the AE signal is very sensitive
to changes in the tool condition with increasing amplitudes (at
the dominant frequencies of 160 kHz), while using worn out
tools. Malekian et al. [11] examined the factors that affect the
tool wear and its monitoring methods while using various
sensors such as the accelerometer, force sensor and AE sensor
in microendmilling.
A few researchers made an attempt to correlate the acquired
AE signals with chip morphology [23–28]. Kluft et al. [23]
observed that, in macro-regime endmilling, generally, two
types of chips are observed, namely arc/curl chips and
elemental/short comma chips. Barry et al. [24] observed that
the low-amplitude and lower-frequency AE signals lead to the
formation of the curl type chip, while high-amplitude and
higher-frequency AE signals lead to the formation of
elemental/short comma type of chips, during the machining
of titanium alloy. They have also observed that the fracture of
the buildup edge also resulted in the significant occurrence of
the AE. Simoneau et al. [26] observed that stick–slip friction
at the tool–chip interface affects the material removal mecha-
nisms, such as shearing and ploughing during the
Fig. 2 Photograph of the experimental setup
1501
Fig. 3 Microstructure of the aluminum workpiece
microturning of steel. Prakash et al. [28] studied the correla-
tion between the AERMS and chip morphology, during the
microendmilling of aluminum alloy. They have observed the
transition of chips from continuous type to segmental type,
during the increase in the tool wear from initial to progressive
wear regions.
Researchers made attempts to correlate the chip for-
mation mechanism with the acquired AE signals
[29–32]. Jackson [29] observed that the chip formation
mechanism in microendmilling is due to the influence
of the machining parameters (tool materials, tool angles,
edge geometries, etc.) and machining environments (ma-
chine tool deflections, cutting fluids, etc.). Lee et al.
[30] categorized the various sources of AE generation,
according to the size of the material removal (Fig. 1).
Mian et al. [31] investigated the chip formation mech-
anisms using discrete wavelet transformation (DWT) of
the AE signals in the microendmilling of different work-
piece materials (copper, steel, titanium and nickel al-
loys). They have decomposed the AE signals into dif-
ferent frequency bands such as D1 (500–1000 kHz), D2
(250–500 kHz), D3 (125–250 kHz), D4 (62.5-125 kHz)
and D5 (32.25–62.5 kHz), which are all related to
intergranular micro-fracture, inclusions, cleavage/micro-
fracture, shearing and microvoids, respectively. They
have also computed the AE-specific energies of the
decomposed signals in different frequency bands to cor-
relate with the chip formation mechanisms. From the
literature review, it is observed that the application of
the AE sensor for TCM has not been fully explored in
microendmilling, even though it is reliable. Therefore,
in this work, an attempt has been made to study the
Table 1 Machining
parameters Speed Feed Depth of
(rpm) (μm/flute) cut (μm)
2800 2 50
1502 Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2015) 77:1499–1511

Table 2 Experimental results

Ex. Machining Tool wear Surface roughness Acoustic emission Chip width AE-specific energy (V2integrated/μm3)×10−8
no. time (s) [VB] (μm) [Ra] (μm) [AERMS] (mV) (μm)
D1 D2 D3 D4 D5

1 240 0 0.502 14.1 110 0.08 0.80 8.15 8.08 0.04

2 480 2.5 0.274 10.9 112 0.04 0.65 9.24 9.31 0.03
3 720 11.0 0.683 11.2 100 0.03 0.56 9.28 8.99 0.03
4 960 12.5 1.000 51.4 92 0.05 0.94 9.61 9.39 0.03
5 1200 16.5 0.427 12 83 0.03 0.68 6.14 6.31 0.03
6 1440 27.5 0.283 12.6 72 0.04 0.77 8.32 8.56 0.03

effect of tool wear on the chip formation mechanisms between the RMS value of the AE signals (AERMS) and the
and chip morphology in the microendmilling of alumi- machining parameters such as depth of cut, feed and the tool
num alloy (AA 1100), using the acquired AE signals. wear (flank wear), which is shown in Eq. 1.
The acquired AE signals are processed and extracted in
the time domain, fast Fourier transformation (FFT) and
AE RM S ¼ K vc ap V B ð1Þ
DWT.

where K is the area density of the contact points, vc is the

2 Signal processing and feature extraction
The acquired AE signals consist of too much information
about the machining process. Therefore, it is necessary to
extract the features of tool wear status from the acquired AE
signals. Recently, researchers have processed the acquired AE
signals in the time domain, frequency domain (FFT) and
DWT, to correlate with the tool wear, chip morphology and
chip formation mechanism [13–22]. In the case of the time
domain analysis, the root mean square (RMS) value of the AE
signals is considered as one of the features for tool wear
monitoring [21]. Xiaoli et al. [21] established a relationship
cutting speed, ap is the depth of cut and VB is the maximum
flank wear. From Eq. 1, it can be observed that AERMS is
directly proportional to the flank wear (VB). In the case of the
frequency domain, it is found that the spectral analysis like the
FFT is a commonly used signal processing technique in tool
wear monitoring [16]. However, it provides solutions only in
the frequency domain and not in the time domain [18].
Therefore, the DWT technique is used for signal processing.
It analyses the signals both in the frequency as well as in the
time domains synchronously, by decomposing the signals into
different components in various time domains and frequency
bands.

Fig. 4 Response graph 60 1.2

Tool wear
AERMS
Ra
Tight curl type chips Elemental/short comma type chips
Tool wear ( m), AERMS (mV)

40 0.8
Ra( m)

20 0.4

0 0.0
0 240 480 720 960 1200 1440
Initial wear region Progressive wear region
Machining time (s)
Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2015) 77:1499–1511 1503

In DWT, wavelets are mathematical functions that break up The main advantage of the wavelets is that they are local-
the data into different frequency components, with the resolu- ized in space. In this work, the DWT is utilized for
tion matched to its scale. The basic functions of the DWT are decomposing the acquired AE signal
short waves of limited duration that have an average value of For the given AE signal f (t), the DWT can be written as
0, which are scaled with respect to frequency. In general, the follows:
wavelet function is defined as follows (Eq. 2)
c j ½ f ðt Þ ¼ hðt Þ*c j1 ð f ðt ÞÞ ð3Þ
1
ht  τ i
Ψ s;τ ðt Þ ¼ jsj 2 Ψ ð2Þ
s
d j ½ f ðt Þ ¼ gðt Þ*c j1 ð f ðt ÞÞ ð4Þ
where τ is the shift parameter, which determines the position
of the window in time (t) and defines the part of the signal x(t) c0 ½ f ð t Þ  ¼ ð f ð t Þ Þ ð5Þ
being analysed, and s is the scale variable. The DWT utilizes
these wavelet functions s and τ, which perform the decompo- where h (t) and g (t) are the high-pass and low-pass filters
sition of the signal Ψ(t). derived from the wavelet function Ψ(t), while cj and dj are the

Fig. 5 Chip morphology at

various stages of tool wear 110 µm

100 m 100 m

a) Tight curl chip b) Tight curl chip

(Fresh tool) (Tool wear at 2.5 m)

100 m 100 m

c) Tight curl chip d) Elemental chip

(Tool wear at 11 m) (Tool wear at 12.5 m)

100 m 100 m

e) Elemental/Short comma chip f) Elemental/Short comma chip

(Tool wear at 16.5 m) (Tool wear at 27.5 m)
1504 Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2015) 77:1499–1511

wavelet and scaling coefficients, respectively, while co is the Then, the AE energy is calculated for the decomposed AE
original signal. signals in different frequency bands (5 levels). The AE energy
X is directly proportional to the area under the AE waveform. It
H f ⋅g ¼ k
hðk  2t Þ ð6Þ is calculated using the following Eq. 10.
Z t1
X
G f ⋅g ¼ gðk  2t Þ ð7Þ E Dt ¼ ðV Di ðt ÞÞ2 dt ð10Þ
k t0

where VDi(t) is the recorded voltage for each decomposed

By combining the Eqs. 3 to 7, it results in following Eqs. 8 AE signals at the ith level (i=1 to 5), t0 is the starting time and
and 9. t1 is the ending time of the acquired AE signals.
Thereafter, the AE-specific energy is calculated by
 
c j ¼ ½ f ðt Þ ¼ H c j1 ½ f ðt Þ ð8Þ normalizing the AE energy with the material removal
rate. It is the integrated squared voltage of AE signals
  for every tool rotation. The AE-specific energy reflects
d j ¼ ½ f ðt Þ ¼ G c j1 ½ f ðt Þ ð9Þ the strain rate during the chip formation process. AE-

Fig. 6 SEM images of the

aluminum chips at various stages Sticking
of tool wear Sliding

a) Formation of lamella and shear band (Fresh tool)

Chip

b) Formation of bulidup edge on the chip (Tool wear at 12.5 m)

Sliding
Sticking

c) Formation of lamella and shear band (Tool wear at 27.5 m)

Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2015) 77:1499–1511
specific energy has been used by researchers for identi-
fying the chip formation mechanism [22, 32].
3 Experimental details
The MIKROTOOLS made DT110 Integrated Multi Process
Micromachining Machine Tool has been used for the experi-
ment (Fig. 2). The machine tool has an X-Y table of resolution
0.1 μm, with the maximum traverse range of 200, 100 and
100 mm in the X, Y and Z axes, respectively. Microendmilling
is performed, using a two-flute carbide endmill (Model:
UMIE 3052; Make: Speed Tiger Precision Technology,
Taiwan) of 500-μm diameter, with 1.93-μm nose radius (ob-
tained using the SEM image), which is coated with aluminum
titanium nitride (AlTiN) of 400-nm thickness. The workpiece
material is aluminum alloy 1100 (AA 1100), and its chemical
composition is aluminum 99.22 %, copper 0.011 %, silicon
0.014 %, iron 0.425 % and manganese 0.05 %, which are
measured using optical emission spectroscopy. AA1100 is
typically used in the manufacturing of micro-heat exchangers,
which need microslots. The metallographic study of the alu-
minum workpiece is carried out using a metallurgical micro-
scope to identify its homogeneity (Fig. 3). The microhardness
Fig. 7 SEM images of the
microendmill at various stages of
tool wear
Buildup edge
Enlarged view of edge A
1505
of the workpiece material is measured, using the micro-
Vickers hardness tester (Make: Wilson Wolpert, Germany)
in four different locations, and the average is recorded. The
average Vicker’s hardness of the workpiece is found to be
80.85 HVat 0.5-kg load. The microendmilling is carried out in
dry conditions. The experimental parameters (Table 1) used in
this study were selected, based on the preliminary experimen-
tal results obtained, using the design of experiment approach
[33].
AE signals are acquired with the help of an AE sensor
(Model: 8152, Make: Kistler,) in the frequency range of 50–
900 kHz mounted on the workpiece by means of screw
(Fig. 2). Piezotron coupler (Model: 5125B, Make: Kistler) is
used to process the acquired high-frequency AE signals. The
AE signals are acquired at a sampling frequency of 2 MHz.
Thereafter, the AE signals are converted into digital ones,
using National Instruments make (Model: PCI-6133), 16-bit
multi-channel analog-to-digital conversion card. During the
preliminary trials, it is observed that the AE events occur
significantly at 150–300 kHz (Fig. 12). Therefore, the signals
were analysed up to the frequency range of 600 kHz. For the
signal processing, the first one million data points are collect-
ed for the analysis, during each machining trial. Among the
one million data points, the first 65,536 data points were
B
A
a) Fresh tool
B
b) Tool wear at 12.5 m
B Buildup edge
Enlarged view of edge B
c) Tool wear at 27.5 m
1506
selected to evaluate the RMS values in the time domain
analysis, and 8,192 data points with high amplitude among
the 65,536 data points were considered for FFT and DWT
analyses. The collected AE signals are decomposed into
five different frequencies such as D1 (500–1000 kHz), D2
(250–500 kHz), D3 (125–250 kHz), D4 (62.5–125 kHz)
and D5 (32.25–62.5 kHz) with 3-db bandwidth, using the
DWT algorithm of MATLAB® (R 2009).
The tool wear is measured after every 240 s of
machining time, using a non-contact video measuring
system (Model: VMS 2010F, Make: Rational Precision
Instruments, Japan), which has a high resolution of
Fig. 8 EDAX of the
microendmill at various stages of
tool wear
Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2015) 77:1499–1511
0.001 mm, with the magnification range of 34–220×.
During the tool wear measurement, the average of the
two flank wears (VB1max and VB2max) value is consid-
ered as the final flank wear (VB). The crater wear is
not considered in this study, since it is found to be
significant at a lower depth of cut (50 μm). In order
to clearly visualize the flank wear, the tool is etched
with acetylene.
The surface roughness (R a ) is measured on the
microendmilled surface at three different locations (be-
ginning, middle and end of the cut) along the length of
the slot in the feed direction, using the non-contact
a) Fresh tool
b) Tool wear at 12.5
c) Tool wear at 27.5
Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2015) 77:1499–1511 1507

Fig. 9 Typical AE signal (tool 0.03

wear 27.5 μm)
0.02

0.01

Amplitude (V)
-0.01

-0.02

-0.03

-0.04

-0.05
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5
-3
Machining time (S) x 10

measurement Talay Surf (Model: CCI Lite, Make: 4 Result and discussions
Taylor Hobson, UK) with 0.8-mm cut of length and
5.6-mm traverse length. The average value is recorded The analysis of the AE signals in time domain, frequency
and given in Table 2. The buildup edge formation on domain and DWT with tool wear, Ra, chip formation mecha-
the tool surface is studied using scanning electron mi- nisms and chip morphology are detailed below.
croscope (SEM) images and energy dispersive X-ray Figure 4 shows the response graph of the tool wear, Ra and
spectroscopy (EDAX) (Make: JEOL, Japan, Model: AERMS with respect to the machining time (also given in
TSM-5300). The SEM images of the chips are also Table 2). From Fig. 4, it is observed that the behaviour of tool
taken to study the chip formation mechanism and la- wear in the microendmill has also followed a similar trend to
mella (surface generation) on the free surface of the that of the macro-regime endmill (i.e. with respect to the
chips. machining time, the tool wear increases) [34, 35]. However,
-3
x 10
5
0
-5
0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.06 0.07
a) AE signal of D1(500-1000 kHz)
0.02
0
-0.02
0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.06 0.07
b) AE signal of D2 (250-500k Hz)
0.05
0
-0.05
0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.06 0.07
c) AE signal of D1(125-250 kHz)
0.05
0
-0.05
0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.06 0.07
x 10
-3
d) AE signal of D4 (62.5-125 kHz)
2
0
-2
0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.06 0.07
e) AE signal of D5 (32.25-62.5 kHz)
Machining Time (S)
Fig. 10 Decomposed AE signals at different frequencies (tool wear 27.5 μm)
1508 Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2015) 77:1499–1511

10
5
0
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000
a) FFT of D1 (500-1000 kHz)
2
1
0
Amplitude (Volts rms)

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000
b) FFT of D2 (250-500 kHz)
2
1
0
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000
c) FFT of D3 (125-250 kHz)
1
0.5
0
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000
d) FFT of D4 (62.5-125 kHz)
1
0.5
0
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000
e) FFT of D5 (32.25-62.5 kHz)
Frequency(KHz)

Fig. 11 FFT of the decomposed AE signal at different frequencies (tool wear 27.5 μm)

the tool wear is found to be lesser in value than that of macro- surface of the tool. The formation of buildup edge on the tool
regime endmilling. This is due to the size of the microendmill. leads to ineffective machining and may result in ploughing/
The same is also observed by Malekian et al. [11]. From rubbing, which is also reflected with the lesser value of
Figs. 4 and 5, it is observed that, during 720 s of the machining AERMS at 960 s (Fig. 4). This is observed also by Simoneau
time, significant changes start to appear in the chip formation et al. [26]. Figure 6 indicates the formation of the lamella
and in the tool wear. During the machining period up to 720 s, (interleaved folds and peaks), chip with short interleaved folds
mostly tight curl chips are observed (Fig. 5a–c); after that (i.e. and the shear band on the free surface of the chips at various
from 721 to 1440 s), elemental or short comma chips are stages of tool wear. This may be due to the effect of the stick–
observed (Fig. 5d–f). Therefore, it can be deduced, which up slip process between the tool and chips, which is also ob-
to 720 s of machining time (i.e. the tool wear up to 11 μm) can served by Jackson [29]. Figures 7 and 8 show the formation of
be considered as the initial wear region, and the machining the buildup edge or adhesion of workpiece material on the
time from 721 to 1440 s (i.e. the tool wear from 11 to 27.5 μm) flank surface of the microendmill at the various stages of tool
can be considered as the progressive wear region. The accel-
erated wear region is not observed within the machining time
from the present study.
Figure 4 and Table 2 also indicate a non-uniform trend of
Ra, AERMS and chip width with respect to machining time. In
conventional macro-regime machining, generally, it is ob-
served that as the tool wear increases, the Ra is found to
increase [34, 35]. However, in tool-based micromachining,
due to the size of the microendmill, the Ra is found to have a
non-uniform trend. The non-uniform trend may be due to the
formation of interrupted chips that occur between the cutting
edge and the workpiece and also may due to the formation of
the buildup edge in the tool flank. This is also similarly
observed by Barry et al. [24], Kim et al. [25] and Simoneau
et al. [26]. From Figs. 6, 7 and 8, it is observed that the
continuous removal of material from the workpiece during
microendmilling leads to the formation of a buildup edge, Fig. 12 AE-specific energy distributions of the decomposed signal at
which is found to be attached and then detached at the sliding different stages of tool wear
Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2015) 77:1499–1511 1509

Fig. 13 Welch power spectral -100

density at the various stages of Machining frequency Fresh tool
tool wear (VB) -102 Tool wear at 2.5 µm
Tool wear at 11 µm
Tool wear at 12.5 µm
-104 Tool wear at 16.5 µm

Power/frequency (dB/Hz)
Tool wear at 27.5 µm
-106

-108

-110

-112

-114

-116
0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3 0.35 0.4 0.45 0.5
Frequency (MHz)

wear. Figure 8 shows the presence of carbon (C), silicon (Si),
iron (Fe) molybdenum (Mo), cobalt (Co), chromium (Cr) and
zinc (Zn) in the tool, which confirms the formation of buildup
edge.
Figure 9 shows typical AE signals (50–1000 kHz) acquired
in the time domain during microendmilling with a tool wear of
27.5 μm. As the time domain of the AE signals has not
provided any significant information on tool status, it is
decomposed into 5 levels of frequency bands, namely, D1
(500–1000 kHz), D2 (250–500 kHz), D3 (125–250 kHz), D4
(62.5–125 kHz) and D5 (32.25–62.5 kHz) (Fig. 10). From
Fig. 10, it is observed that the amplitude levels of the frequen-
cy bands D1 (5×10−3 V) and D5 (2×10−3 V) are very low
compared with the other frequency bands. Hence, the levels of
D1 and D5 frequency bands are considered as insensitive to
the tool wear status. The FFT analysis is also carried out in
order to verify whether the decomposed AE signal is in the
respective frequency bands (Fig. 11). Figure 11 indicates that
the FFT of the decomposed signal (D1–D5) falls within the
range.
In order to identify the chip formation mechanism, the AE-
specific energy was computed from the decomposed signals
of D1–D5 levels at different tool wear stages, namely fresh
tool and tool wear with 2.5, 11, 12.5, 16.5 and 27.5 μm
(Fig. 12 and Table 2). From Fig. 12, it is observed that the
higher AE-specific energy is distributed within the
decomposed signals of the D3 and D4 levels, while low
energy is distributed in the decomposed signals of the D1,
D2 and D5 levels. The occurrence of high AE-specific energy
distribution at D3 and D4 levels indicates that the AE activi-
ties are due to the shearing or microfracture mode of the chip
formation mechanisms (Fig. 1). Figure 12 also indicates that
there is an increase in the trend of the AE-specific energy, with
the increase in the tool wear during first minute to 960 minutes
(tool wear up to 12.5 μm). This may be attributed to the
effective interaction of the tool edge radius of the
microendmill with the workpiece material. A similar observa-
tion is made by Mian et al. [31]. However, there is a decreas-
ing trend of the AE-specific energy with tool wear of 16.5 μm
at D3 as well as D4 levels (Fig. 12). This may be due to the

Fig. 14 Spectra of the AE signal

-4
at various stages of tool wear 3.6x10
Amplitude (Volts rms)

-4
2.7x10

-4
1.8x10
elemental chip
formation
Region of

-5
9.0x10

0.0
27.5
)
m

16.5
formation
Region of
curl chip

12.5
ar
we

11
ol

2.5
To

Fresh tool
150 200 250 300
Frequency (kHz)
1510
formation of the buildup edge on the tool (Fig. 7b), which
affects the effective machining, and may lead to ploughing/
rubbing. Hence, the AE-specific energy is found to be low at
the tool wear 16.5 μm. Thereafter, there is an increasing trend
of the AE-specific energy at the tool wear of 27.5 μm that is
observed (Fig. 12). This may be due to removal of the buildup
edge of the tool during machining (Fig. 6b). This is also
reflected in the reduction of AERMS values (Table 2 and
Fig. 4). From the above analysis, it is observed that the AE-
specific energy is sensitive to the formation of the buildup
edge, apart from effective machining. This is also observed by
Barry et al. [24].
Figure 13 shows the Welch power spectral density of the
acquired AE signal at various stages of the tool wear. From
Fig. 13, it is observed that the dominant frequency of the AE
signal is found to lie between 150 and 300 kHz. Similarly, it is
also observed by Haber et al. [10] in high-speed endmilling.
From Fig. 13, it is also observed that the frequency compo-
nents of the AE signal, which are above 300 kHz, are found to
be insignificant and do not give any significant information
related to tool wear. Therefore, only the signals in the range of
150–350 kHz are considered for the FFT analysis (Fig. 14).
Figure 14 shows the spectra of the AE signals at different
stages of tool wear. From Fig. 14, it is observed that, during
microendmilling with tool wear up to 11 μm (up to 720 s), the
dominant frequency is found to vary from 221 to 254 kHz
with low-frequency and low-amplitude (up to 1.75×10−4
Volts rms) signals. During the above period (i.e. up to 720 s
of machining time), mostly tight curl type of chips are ob-
served (Fig. 5a–c). However, during the progressive wear
region (i.e. with tool wear 16.5 to 27.5 μm), the dominant
frequency is found to be around 234 kHz with high-amplitude
(from 1.76×10−4 Volts rms to 4×10−4 Volts rms) signals and
mostly elemental/short comma type of chips are observed
(Fig. 5d–f). The shift from the low-amplitude AE signals to
the high-amplitude AE signals also indicates the changes in
the material removal mechanism of chip formation from the
shearing mode (ductile/plastic deformation) to the
microfracture mode (brittle/fracture) (Fig. 1). This is also
similarly observed by the Mian et al. [32]. A significant shift
in the maximum amplitude of the AE signals is also observed
during the tool wear of 16.5 μm (i.e. 960 s of machining time)
(Fig. 14). This may be attributed to the removal of the buildup
edge from the tool (Figs. 6 and 7).
5 Conclusions
In this work, the effects of tool wear on Ra, chip formation
mechanisms and chip morphology during the
microendmilling of aluminum alloy (AA1100) are studied
with the acquired AE signals. The AE signal is analysed in
Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2015) 77:1499–1511
the time domain, FFT and DWT. The following conclusions
are drawn.
1. Tool wear followed a uniform trend with respect to the
machining time, while a non-uniform trend is observed in
the case of Ra, AERMS and chip width due to the formation
of interrupted chips and the buildup edges in the tool
flank.
2. The occurrence of a higher order of AE-specific energy at
the frequency bands of D3 (125–250 kHz) and D4 (62.5-
125 kHz) are correlated with the shearing and
microfracture modes of material removal mechanism.
3. AERMS and AE-specific energy are sensitive to the for-
mation of the buildup edge and effective machining.
4. The amplitude of the AE signals is correlated with chip
morphology. The region up to 1.75×10−4 Volts rms is
found with tight curl type of chips and from 1.76×10−4
Volts rms to 4×10−4 Volts rms is found with elemental/
short comma type of chips.
Acknowledgments The authors would like to gratefully acknowledge
the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Ministry of Science
and Technology, Government of India, New Delhi, India, for providing
financial support to carry out this research work titled “Development of
in-process Tool Condition Monitoring for Mechanical Micro-Machining
Using Multiple Sensors” under the project number SR/S3/MERC-0004/
2010.
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