Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2015) 77:14991511

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 wavelet transformation (DWT) technique. The time domain analysis 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 frequency 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 mechanisms 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 mechanisms 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 NebraskaLincoln,
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 fabrication of devices or features with at least some of their
dimensions in the micrometer range (1999 m) [1].
Subsequently, the dimension is adapted to 500 m [2, 3]. A
tool-based micromachining differs from macro-regime machining 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, micro-propellers, micro-fluidic devices, micro-heat sinks and
micro-heat exchangers. In microendmilling, normally, the diameter 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 m, with a
cutting edge radius of up to 2 m. 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 environment [610].

Various methods of tool wear monitoring have been proposed in the earlier studies [912]. These methods are classified 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. [1316]. 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 [1822]. 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) 77:14991511

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 [1820]. 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 deformation 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 [2327].
The literature review related to tool wear monitoring using
the AE sensor, chip formation mechanism and chip

Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2015) 77:14991511

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 deformation) 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 acquired 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 [2328]. 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 stickslip friction
at the toolchip interface affects the material removal mechanisms, such as shearing and ploughing during the

1501

Fig. 3 Microstructure of the aluminum workpiece

microturning of steel. Prakash et al. [28] studied the correlation 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 formation mechanism with the acquired AE signals
[2932]. 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 (machine 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 mechanisms using discrete wavelet transformation (DWT) of
the AE signals in the microendmilling of different workpiece materials (copper, steel, titanium and nickel alloys). They have decomposed the AE signals into different frequency bands such as D1 (5001000 kHz), D2
(250500 kHz), D3 (125250 kHz), D4 (62.5-125 kHz)
and D5 (32.2562.5 kHz), which are all related to
intergranular micro-fracture, inclusions, cleavage/microfracture, shearing and microvoids, respectively. They
have also computed the AE-specific energies of the
decomposed signals in different frequency bands to correlate 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

Fig. 2 Photograph of the experimental setup

Speed
(rpm)

Feed
(m/flute)

Depth of
cut (m)

2800

50

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Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2015) 77:14991511

Table 2 Experimental results

Ex.
no.

1
2
3
4
5
6

Machining
time (s)

240
480
720
960
1200
1440

Tool wear
[VB] (m)

0
2.5
11.0
12.5
16.5
27.5

Surface roughness
[Ra] (m)

0.502
0.274
0.683
1.000
0.427
0.283

Acoustic emission
[AERMS] (mV)

14.1
10.9
11.2
51.4
12
12.6

effect of tool wear on the chip formation mechanisms

and chip morphology in the microendmilling of aluminum alloy (AA 1100), using the acquired AE signals.
The acquired AE signals are processed and extracted in
the time domain, fast Fourier transformation (FFT) and
DWT.

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 [1322]. 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

AE-specific energy (V2integrated/m3)108

Chip width
(m)

110
112
100
92
83
72

D1

D2

D3

D4

D5

0.08
0.04
0.03
0.05
0.03
0.04

0.80
0.65
0.56
0.94
0.68
0.77

8.15
9.24
9.28
9.61
6.14
8.32

8.08
9.31
8.99
9.39
6.31
8.56

0.04
0.03
0.03
0.03
0.03
0.03

between the RMS value of the AE signals (AERMS) and the

machining parameters such as depth of cut, feed and the tool
wear (flank wear), which is shown in Eq. 1.
AE RM S K vc ap V B

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

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.

60

Fig. 4 Response graph

Tool wear
AERMS

1.2

Ra

Elemental/short comma type chips

40

0.8

20

0.4

Ra( m)

Tool wear ( m), AERMS (mV)

Tight curl type chips

0
0

240

480

720

Initial wear region

960

1200

Progressive wear region

Machining time (s)

0.0
1440

Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2015) 77:14991511

1503

In DWT, wavelets are mathematical functions that break up

the data into different frequency components, with the resolution matched to its scale. The basic functions of the DWT are
short waves of limited duration that have an average value of
0, which are scaled with respect to frequency. In general, the
wavelet function is defined as follows (Eq. 2)
1

s; t jsj 2

ht  i
s

The main advantage of the wavelets is that they are localized in space. In this work, the DWT is utilized for
decomposing the acquired AE signal
For the given AE signal f (t), the DWT can be written as
follows:
c j f t  ht *c j1 f t

d j f t  gt *c j1 f t

c0 f t  f t

where is the shift parameter, which determines the position

of the window in time (t) and defines the part of the signal x(t)
being analysed, and s is the scale variable. The DWT utilizes
these wavelet functions s and , which perform the decomposition of the signal (t).

where h (t) and g (t) are the high-pass and low-pass filters
derived from the wavelet function (t), while cj and dj are the

Fig. 5 Chip morphology at

various stages of tool wear

110 m

100 m

a) Tight curl chip

100 m

b) Tight curl chip

(Fresh tool)

(Tool wear at 2.5 m)

100 m

c) Tight curl chip

(Tool wear at 11 m)

100 m

e) Elemental/Short comma chip

(Tool wear at 16.5 m)

100 m

d) Elemental chip
(Tool wear at 12.5 m)

100 m

f) Elemental/Short comma chip

(Tool wear at 27.5 m)

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Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2015) 77:14991511

wavelet and scaling coefficients, respectively, while co is the

original signal.
H f g
G f g

X
k

hk  2t

gk  2t
k

By combining the Eqs. 3 to 7, it results in following Eqs. 8

and 9.


c j f t  H c j1 f t 



d j f t  G c j1 f t 

Fig. 6 SEM images of the

aluminum chips at various stages
of tool wear

Then, the AE energy is calculated for the decomposed AE

signals in different frequency bands (5 levels). The AE energy
is directly proportional to the area under the AE waveform. It
is calculated using the following Eq. 10.
E Dt

t1

V Di t 2 dt

10

t0

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

AE signals at the ith level (i=1 to 5), t0 is the starting time and
t1 is the ending time of the acquired AE signals.
Thereafter, the AE-specific energy is calculated by
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
the strain rate during the chip formation process. AESticking
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) 77:14991511

specific energy has been used by researchers for identifying the chip formation mechanism [22, 32].

3 Experimental details
The MIKROTOOLS made DT110 Integrated Multi Process
Micromachining Machine Tool has been used for the experiment (Fig. 2). The machine tool has an X-Y table of resolution
0.1 m, 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-m diameter, with 1.93-m nose radius (obtained 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 aluminum workpiece is carried out using a metallurgical microscope to identify its homogeneity (Fig. 3). The microhardness

1505

of the workpiece material is measured, using the microVickers hardness tester (Make: Wilson Wolpert, Germany)
in four different locations, and the average is recorded. The
average Vickers 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 experimental 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 150300 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 collected for the analysis, during each machining trial. Among the
one million data points, the first 65,536 data points were

Fig. 7 SEM images of the

microendmill at various stages of
tool wear
B
A

a) Fresh tool

Buildup edge
B

b) Tool wear at 12.5 m

A

Enlarged view of edge A

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 (5001000 kHz), D2
(250500 kHz), D3 (125250 kHz), D4 (62.5125 kHz)
and D5 (32.2562.5 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

Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2015) 77:14991511

0.001 mm, with the magnification range of 34220.

During the tool wear measurement, the average of the
two flank wears (VB1max and VB2max) value is considered 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 m). 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 (beginning, middle and end of the cut) along the length of
the slot in the feed direction, using the non-contact

Fig. 8 EDAX of the

microendmill at various stages of
tool wear

a) Fresh tool

b) Tool wear at 12.5

c) Tool wear at 27.5

Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2015) 77:14991511

1507
0.03

Fig. 9 Typical AE signal (tool

wear 27.5 m)

0.02

Amplitude (V)

0.01
0
-0.01
-0.02
-0.03
-0.04
-0.05

0.5

1.5

2.5

measurement Talay Surf (Model: CCI Lite, Make:

Taylor Hobson, UK) with 0.8-mm cut of length and
5.6-mm traverse length. The average value is recorded
and given in Table 2. The buildup edge formation on
the tool surface is studied using scanning electron microscope (SEM) images and energy dispersive X-ray
spectroscopy (EDAX) (Make: JEOL, Japan, Model:
TSM-5300). The SEM images of the chips are also
taken to study the chip formation mechanism and lamella (surface generation) on the free surface of the
chips.
x 10

3.5
x 10

Machining time (S)

-3

4 Result and discussions

The analysis of the AE signals in time domain, frequency
domain and DWT with tool wear, Ra, chip formation mechanisms and chip morphology are detailed below.
Figure 4 shows the response graph of the tool wear, Ra and
AERMS with respect to the machining time (also given in
Table 2). From Fig. 4, it is observed that the behaviour of tool
wear in the microendmill has also followed a similar trend to
that of the macro-regime endmill (i.e. with respect to the
machining time, the tool wear increases) [34, 35]. However,

-3

0
-5

0.01

0.02

0.03

0.04

0.05

0.06

0.07

0.05

0.06

0.07

0.05

0.06

0.07

0.05

0.06

0.07

0.05

0.06

0.07

a) AE signal of D1(500-1000 kHz)

0.02
0
-0.02

0.01

0.02

0.03

0.04

b) AE signal of D2 (250-500k Hz)

0.05
0
-0.05

0.01

0.02

0.03

0.04

c) AE signal of D1(125-250 kHz)

0.05
0
-0.05
2

0
x 10

0.01

0.02

0.03

0.04

d) AE signal of D4 (62.5-125 kHz)

-3

0
-2

0.01

0.02

0.03

0.04

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 m)

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Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2015) 77:14991511

10
5
0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

800

900

1000

700

800

900

1000

700

800

900

1000

700

800

900

1000

700

800

900

1000

a) FFT of D1 (500-1000 kHz)

2

Amplitude (Volts rms)

1
0

100

200

300

400

500

600

b) FFT of D2 (250-500 kHz)

2
1
0

100

200

300

400

500

600

c) FFT of D3 (125-250 kHz)

1
0.5
0

100

200

300

400

500

600

d) FFT of D4 (62.5-125 kHz)

1
0.5
0

100

200

300

400

500

600

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 m)

the tool wear is found to be lesser in value than that of macroregime endmilling. This is due to the size of the microendmill.
The same is also observed by Malekian et al. [11]. From
Figs. 4 and 5, it is observed that, during 720 s of the machining
time, significant changes start to appear in the chip formation
and in the tool wear. During the machining period up to 720 s,
mostly tight curl chips are observed (Fig. 5ac); after that (i.e.
from 721 to 1440 s), elemental or short comma chips are
observed (Fig. 5df). Therefore, it can be deduced, which up
to 720 s of machining time (i.e. the tool wear up to 11 m) can
be considered as the initial wear region, and the machining
time from 721 to 1440 s (i.e. the tool wear from 11 to 27.5 m)
can be considered as the progressive wear region. The accelerated 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 observed 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,
which is found to be attached and then detached at the sliding

surface of the tool. The formation of buildup edge on the tool

leads to ineffective machining and may result in ploughing/
rubbing, which is also reflected with the lesser value of
AERMS at 960 s (Fig. 4). This is observed also by Simoneau
et al. [26]. Figure 6 indicates the formation of the lamella
(interleaved folds and peaks), chip with short interleaved folds
and the shear band on the free surface of the chips at various
stages of tool wear. This may be due to the effect of the stick
slip process between the tool and chips, which is also observed by Jackson [29]. Figures 7 and 8 show the formation of
the buildup edge or adhesion of workpiece material on the
flank surface of the microendmill at the various stages of tool

Fig. 12 AE-specific energy distributions of the decomposed signal at

different stages of tool wear

Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2015) 77:14991511

1509
-100

Fig. 13 Welch power spectral

density at the various stages of
tool wear (VB)

Machining frequency

Power/frequency (dB/Hz)

-102
-104

Fresh tool
Tool wear at 2.5 m
Tool wear at 11 m
Tool wear at 12.5 m
Tool wear at 16.5 m
Tool wear at 27.5 m

-106
-108
-110
-112
-114
-116

0.1

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 (501000 kHz) acquired
in the time domain during microendmilling with a tool wear of
27.5 m. 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
(5001000 kHz), D2 (250500 kHz), D3 (125250 kHz), D4
(62.5125 kHz) and D5 (32.2562.5 kHz) (Fig. 10). From
Fig. 10, it is observed that the amplitude levels of the frequency bands D1 (5103 V) and D5 (2103 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 (D1D5) falls within the
range.

0.15

0.2

0.25
0.3
0.35
Frequency (MHz)

0.4

0.45

0.5

In order to identify the chip formation mechanism, the AEspecific energy was computed from the decomposed signals
of D1D5 levels at different tool wear stages, namely fresh
tool and tool wear with 2.5, 11, 12.5, 16.5 and 27.5 m
(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 activities 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 m). This may be attributed to the
effective interaction of the tool edge radius of the
microendmill with the workpiece material. A similar observation is made by Mian et al. [31]. However, there is a decreasing trend of the AE-specific energy with tool wear of 16.5 m
at D3 as well as D4 levels (Fig. 12). This may be due to the

Fig. 14 Spectra of the AE signal

at various stages of tool wear

-4

2.7x10

-4

Region of
elemental chip
formation

1.8x10

-5

150

To
ol
we
ar
(

Region of
curl chip
formation

0.0
27.5
16.5
12.5

9.0x10

11
2.5
Fresh tool
200

250
Frequency (kHz)

300

Amplitude (Volts rms)

-4

3.6x10

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 m. Thereafter, there is an increasing trend
of the AE-specific energy at the tool wear of 27.5 m 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 AEspecific 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 components 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
150350 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 m (up to 720 s), the
dominant frequency is found to vary from 221 to 254 kHz
with low-frequency and low-amplitude (up to 1.75104
Volts rms) signals. During the above period (i.e. up to 720 s
of machining time), mostly tight curl type of chips are observed (Fig. 5ac). However, during the progressive wear
region (i.e. with tool wear 16.5 to 27.5 m), the dominant
frequency is found to be around 234 kHz with high-amplitude
(from 1.76104 Volts rms to 4104 Volts rms) signals and
mostly elemental/short comma type of chips are observed
(Fig. 5df). 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 m (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) 77:14991511

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 (125250 kHz) and D4 (62.5125 kHz) are correlated with the shearing and
microfracture modes of material removal mechanism.
3. AERMS and AE-specific energy are sensitive to the formation of the buildup edge and effective machining.
4. The amplitude of the AE signals is correlated with chip
morphology. The region up to 1.75104 Volts rms is
found with tight curl type of chips and from 1.76104
Volts rms to 4104 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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