Analysis and experimental study on the mechanism of heat generation suppression in vibration-assisted cutting of bone materials

Thermal necrosis of bone cells is a common problem in bone surgery, and vibration-assisted micro-milling (VAM) can efficiently remove bone material and minimize damage, which is of great importance in improving the success rate of surgery. However, the mechanism of heat conduction for the removal of bone material in vibration milling has not yet been fully examined and therefore requires further in-depth research. This work investigates the mechanism by which VAM inhibits milling heat and presents a thermal model for VAM. By optimizing the parameters of vibration-assisted cutting, a larger proportion of heat is effectively dissipated through the chips, resulting in significantly reduced heat accumulation in the remaining bone material. The finite element method was used to simulate and analyze the temperature field distribution of the bone material, cutter and chips during the milling process; finally, a VAM experimental platform was established to analyze the bone material and cutter edge temperature under different processing parameters. Both the simulation and experimental data have shown that vibration-assisted cutting is beneficial for accelerating chip breakage and heat dissipation and can suppress the heat accumulation and temperature rise effects of bone materials. The research conclusions of this article have important guiding significance for the parameter selection of vibration-assisted bone milling.