Study on cutting force and induced thermal damage of carbon fiber reinforced polymer composites using microscopic simulation modeling

Abstract

AbstractA three‐dimensional (3D) microscopic finite element (FE) cutting model was developed with the thermo‐mechanical coupling for carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) composites in this article. The model predictions of cutting force, machined surface, and cutting temperature at various fiber orientations were obtained and compared with the experimental data. It was shown that the 3D microscopic cutting model can predict the cutting force, cutting temperature, and subsurface damage precisely. The behavior of cutting force has presented an obviously cyclical variation characteristics at the fiber orientations of 0°, 45°, and 90°, and different chip morphologies were obtained correspondingly. The temperature fields of machined surface were studied at the four different fiber orientations, in which the maximum residual temperature on the machined surface occurs at 90°. The heat‐induced resin coating and resin ridges on the machined surface were obviously observed at the fiber orientations of 45° and 135°. The trend curve of cutting temperature is more similar with that of thrust force by comparing with cutting force, which meaning, unlike the isotropic metal materials, the thrust force has the direct effect on the heat generation. In addition, the comparison of depth of thermal and mechanical subsurface damage was also performed, it was showed that the depths of thermal subsurface damage are close to that of mechanical subsurface damage in the range of 0°–45°, and the thermal subsurface damage decrease while the mechanical subsurface damage increases with the increase of the fiber orientation range from 90° to 180°.