CUTTING-INDUCED VIBRATION IN CIRCULAR SAWS

An analytical model of a wood-cutting circular saw blade is developed for the purpose of understanding the mechanics of a lateral vibration instability known as washboarding. The governing equation developed contains inertial, gyroscopic and stiffness terms based upon the saw plate characteristics with the cutting forces being represented by the product of a time-dependent periodic function and the lateral displacement of the saw tooth. A stability analysis of the system is shown to produce predictions that are consistent with experimental data.