Delamination study on newly formulated Ni-P coated glass fibre/nanowire - reinforced polymer composite using Grey relational analysis

Abstract

Hybrid polymer composite materials are nowadays used as an economically alternative to conventional materials because of their unique engineering properties. Delamination is the major criteria to be considered during the drilling of the polymer composites. In the present work, Grey relational analysis is effectively used for optimising the machining parameters such as spindle speed, feed rate and diameter of the drill with respect to the delamination in the inlet and exit of the drilled hole of Ni-P - GF/Al2O3 nanowire reinforced hybrid composite. Optimal drilling parameters are obtained by the Grey relational grade for multi-performance characteristics, using Taguchi's L25, five-level orthogonal array. From the analysis, it is clear that the drill diameter is the most influential factor followed by the feed rate and the spindle speed. Experimental results indicate that the inlet and exit delamination can be reduced at the optimal drilling conditions of minimum feed rate (30 mm/min), drill diameter (4 mm) and maximum spindle speed (2,700 rpm).