Abstract:

The utility of composites in unconventional industries, especially the aerospace industry, has expanded dramatically due to their unique mechanical properties. Drilling CFRP composite elements is one of the most common operations in assembly and therefore, choosing the right process parameters and geometry is an essential key to controlling damage caused by drilling (i.e. layer separation means delamination). This observation provides a unique mathematical version of predicting the required thrust force at which separation (delamination) begins. The model considers thermos-mechanics loads of a mixed failure mode located in the separation region for unidirectional composites. This incorporated technique consists of 3 stages; (i) Experimental research on drilling thrust force and (ii) Effects of feed rate scheduling on minimizing delamination. It turned perceived that the simplest scheduling the feed rate is not enough for minimizing the delamination. Present work attempts to investigate aspects of machining performance optimization during drilling of CFRP composites. In case of drilling, the following process performance features viz. load (thrust), torque, roughness average (of the drilled hole) and delamination factor (entry and exit both) have been considered. Attempt has been made to determine the optimal machining parameters setting that can simultaneously satisfy aforesaid response features up to the desired extent.

Keywords: Carbon Fibre Reinforced Polymer (CFRP); thrust force, torque, delamination.