Investigation on the Effect of Drilling Parameters on Quality of Hole in Epoxy Resin With and Without Carbon Fiber Reinforced With 6% and 10% Si3N4 Using FEA

Abstract

Abstract Now days drilling of fiber reinforced plastics become a challenging task in terms of obtaining defect free holes. Quality of drilling mainly depends on cutting parameters such as spindle speed, feed rate, diameter of the drill etc. Recently Finite element analysis (FEA) is found to be the most reliable method to investigate the effect of such parameters on quality of hole in drilling of composites. Present study focuses on the drilling of Epoxy resin with and without carbon fiber reinforced with 6% and 10% volume of Si3N4 composites as per the Taguchi’s L27 standard orthogonal array using HSS tool. FEA is carried out for each combination of cutting parameters given by taguchi’s table. Simulation results such as stress distribution, strain and deformation in the material are correlated with the with the drilled hole performance characteristics like Cylindricity, circularity, delamination and surface roughness. Simulation results depict the influence of thrust force and torque on the degree of deformation, strength, elasticity and stress distribution in the work material during drilling. From the simulation, it is found that deformation, and equivalent stress in the material decreases with increase in the % of Si3N4 reinforcement resulting in minimum surface roughness. The effect of feed rate is more on the value of thrust force resulting in maximum principal stress, equivalent stress and directional deformation in the material, which leads to delamination at the entry and exit of the hole. Further, influence of spindle speed is more on the value of torque resulting in maximum principal stress, equivalent stress and directional deformation in the material, which leads to maximum value of Cylindricity.