3D Finite Element investigation in high speed drilling of unidirectional Glass Fiber Reinforced Polymer composite

Abstract

The unidirectional Glass Fiber Reinforced Polymers (UD-GFRP) composites have wide spread usage in the current modern industries, because of their significant mechanical behavior over conventional materials and metals. Drilling operation is a vital machining process of making holes with high precision during the pre-assembly process of the laminates. Hole with higher precision is needed to guarantee the strength of the joint made during the assembly process. However, the effect of key drilling parameter settings like cutting speed, tool diameter, tool geometry, drill material and feed rate is more significant in achieving acceptable dimensional tolerance and quality holes. The effect of the thrust forces in the quality of the hole and chip morphology is very high especially during the high speed drilling process. Hence, the prediction and investigation of the critical thrust force is very much needed to reduce the machining induced defects and thereby improving the effectiveness of the drilling process. In this research work, the prevalidated 3D Finite Element Model (3D FEM) developed in ABAQUS/Explicit software is utilized to analyze and explore the complex cutting mechanics behind high speed drilling of GFRP composite. The effect of machining parameters settings on thrust forces are predicted and reported using 3D FE analysis.