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Recent Advancements in Mechanical Drilling of Composite Laminates

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A special issue of Journal of Composites Science (ISSN 2504-477X). This special issue belongs to the section "Composites Manufacturing and Processing".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2022) | Viewed by 11056

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Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Gérald Franz

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Guest Editor

Laboratoire des Technologies Innovantes LTI, University Institute of Technology of Amiens, University of Picardie Jules Verne, UR UPJV 3899, 80025 Amiens, France
Interests: mechanics; multiscale modeling; crystal plasticity; micromechanics; stability and bifurcation; microstructure; polycristalline steels; multi-material stacks; FRP composite materials; ductility; damage; wear; forming; drilling; welding
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Fiber-Reinforced Polymer (FRP) composite laminates, such as Carbon Fiber-Reinforced Polymers (CFRP), Glass Fiber-Reinforced Polymers (GFRP), Aramid Fiber-Reinforced Polymers (AFRP) or more recently Natural Fiber-Reinforced Polymers (NFRP), exhibit enhanced properties compared to conventional materials and are gradually preferred to them in various engineering applications such as automotive parts or sport goods. In the particular case of the modern aeronautical manufacturing, emerging hybrid Fiber Metal Laminates (FML) or bi-material metallic-composite stacks are used to obtain better structural functionalities and mechanical properties superior to those of the individual components. Despite their widespread applications, drilling of these composite laminates with required quality remains a challenging task because of the heterogeneity, anisotropy and high abrasiveness of fibers for the FRP composites and due to the disparate machinability of each constituted material in the case of hybrid stacks.

The drilling performance and drilled-hole quality are essentially characterized by surface roughness, peel-up and push-out delamination, mechanical and thermal damages and thrust force. They depend on cutting parameters (cutting speed and feed rate), drilling tool characteristics (type, geometry, coating, material) and drilling processes (conventional and unconventional).

This Special Issue focuses on latest experimental and theoretical advancements in the fields of various drilling processes for composite laminates covering large topic including these main aspects: damage modelling in composite drilling by FE approaches or analytical models, optimization of process parameters, development of special drill bits, damage detection and quantification, wear prediction and tool performance… Authors are encouraged to contribute to the Special Issue by submitting original papers as well as review articles.

Dr. Gérald Franz
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Journal of Composites Science is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

Composite laminates (CFRP, GFRP, AFRP)
Fiber-Metal Laminates (FML) and FRP/metal stacks
Conventional drilling and orthogonal cutting
Non-traditional drilling processes (e.g. vibration-assisted drilling, orbital drilling, …)
Drilled-hole quality (delamination, roughness, diameter…)
Chip formation and removal mechanisms
Drill wear mechanisms and tool life
Tribological behavior and friction tool-chip interface modeling
Numerical simulation and FE analysis
Mechanistic and analytical modeling of thrust force and heat generation

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

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16 pages, 7055 KiB

Open AccessArticle

ANN-Based Estimation of the Defect Severity in the Drilling of GFRP/Ti Multilayered Composite Structure

by Igor Zhilyaev, Evgeny Chigrinets, Sergey Shevtsov, Samira Chotchaeva and Natalia Snezhina

J. Compos. Sci. 2022, 6(12), 370; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/jcs6120370 - 05 Dec 2022

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1455

Abstract

The main purpose of this study was to develop a model for predicting the quality of holes drilled in the root part of the spar of helicopter main rotor blades made of glass fiber-reinforced plastic (GFRP)-Ti multilayer polymer composite. As the main quality criterion, delaminations at the entry and exit of the drill from the hole were taken. In the experimental study, a conventional drill and two modified geometry drills, a double-point angle drill and a dagger drill, were used. Preliminary experiments showed the best hole quality when using modified drills, which allowed further detailed study only with both modified drills at different drilling speeds and feed rates. Its results in the form of training sets were used to build artificial neural networks (ANNs) to predict delamination at the entry and exit of the drilled holes. An analysis of the fitted response functions presented as 3D surface plots and contour plots led to the selection of the best tool, a double-point angle drill, which demonstrated the lowest achievable delamination both at the entry and at the exit of the holes approximately 1.5 times less (0.45/0.48 mm) compared to dagger drills (0.68/0.7 mm) and determined the ~5 times larger optimal area for the drilling speed and feed rate. The results obtained confirm the possibility of effective prediction of the quality and productivity of mechanically processed composites of complex reinforcement using ANN to quantify the quality criteria and search for the optimal modes of such technologies. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Advancements in Mechanical Drilling of Composite Laminates)

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23 pages, 7770 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Applicability of Asymmetric Specimens for Residual Stress Evaluation in Fiber Metal Laminates

by Johannes Wiedemann, Jan-Uwe R. Schmidt and Christian Hühne

J. Compos. Sci. 2022, 6(11), 329; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/jcs6110329 - 02 Nov 2022

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1327

Abstract

Residual stresses in fiber metal laminates (FML) inevitably develop during the manufacturing process. The main contributor to these stresses is the difference in the coefficients of thermal expansion (CTE) between fibers and metal in combination with high process temperatures. To quantify these stresses, the use of specimens with an asymmetric layup is an easily adaptable method. The curvature that develops after the manufacturing of flat laminates with an asymmetrical layer stack is a measure of the level of residual stresses evolving during cure. However, the accuracy of the curvature evaluation is highly dependent on specimen design and other influencing parameters. This leads to deviations when compared to other methods for residual stress quantification as can be seen from the literature. Therefore, in this work a large set of FML specimens is comprehensively investigated to identify relevant influencing parameters and derive conclusions about specimen design and evaluation techniques. For certain layups and process parameters, there is a good correlation between the curvature and the stress-free temperature, which is further covered by analytical solutions for bimetals. This correlation is the basis to transfer curvature into a stress-free temperature that can consequently be used for the quantification of residual stress levels in more complex FMLs. The transfer is validated by in situ strain measurements during cure using a strain gauge technique. Based on the results, the application of asymmetric specimens for residual stress characterization in more complex laminates is presented in the form of a workflow. The work shows the basic considerations and procedures necessary to use asymmetric specimens for residual stress quantification in FML. Furthermore, the results obtained can also be transferred to other composite materials. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Advancements in Mechanical Drilling of Composite Laminates)

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23 pages, 3910 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Drilling-Induced Damages in Hybrid Carbon and Glass Fiber-Reinforced Composite Laminate and Optimized Drilling Parameters

by Elango Natarajan, Kalaimani Markandan, Santhosh Mozhuguan Sekar, Kaviarasan Varadaraju, Saravanakumar Nesappan, Anto Dilip Albert Selvaraj, Wei Hong Lim and Gérald Franz

J. Compos. Sci. 2022, 6(10), 310; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/jcs6100310 - 12 Oct 2022

Cited by 10 | Viewed by 2212

Abstract

Hybrid carbon and glass fiber-reinforced composites have attracted significant research interest for primary load-bearing structural components in the field of aviation manufacturing owing to their low weight and high strength to weight ratio. However, the anisotropic and heterogenic nature of carbon and/or glass fiber-reinforced composite prevents high machining quality due to the directionality effect of fibers in the polymer matrix. As such, this study investigates the effect of drilling process for hybrid fiber-reinforced composite and reports optimal drilling parameters to improve the drill quality. Experimental studies indicate that an increased point angle (i.e., from 80° to 120°) resulted in low delamination upon entry due to reduced thrust force, which in turn produces better surface finish with minimal tool wear. The optimal feed rate (0.2 mm/min) ensures lower delamination at entry, since higher feed rates can increase the thrust force due to elevation in the shear area or raise the self-generated feed angle, which in turn reduces the effective clearance angle. To this end, drilling parameters were optimized using Dandelion optimizer (DO)—a cutting-edge metaheuristic search algorithm (MSA). We report the excellent consistency of DO to solve the proposed drilling optimization problem while achieving promising results as ascertained by the small standard deviation values. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Advancements in Mechanical Drilling of Composite Laminates)

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14 pages, 2082 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Effect of Twist Drill Geometry and Drilling Parameters on Hole Quality in Single-Shot Drilling of CFRP/Al7075-T6 Composite Stack

by Muhammad Hafiz Hassan, Jamaluddin Abdullah, Gérald Franz, Chim Yi Shen and Reza Mahmoodian

J. Compos. Sci. 2021, 5(7), 189; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/jcs5070189 - 17 Jul 2021

Cited by 12 | Viewed by 3431

Abstract

Drilling two different materials in a layer, or stack-up, is being practiced widely in the aerospace industry to minimize critical dimension mismatch and error in the subsequent assembly process, but the compatibility of the drill to compensate the widely differing properties of composite is still a major challenge to the industry. In this paper, the effect of customized twist drill geometry and drilling parameters are being investigated based on the thrust force signature generated during the drilling of CFRP/Al7075-T6. Based on ANOVA, it is found that the maximum thrust force for both CFRP and Al7075-T6 are highly dependent on the feed rate. Through the analysis of maximum thrust force, supported by hole diameter error, hole surface roughness, and chip formation, it is found that the optimum tool parameters selection includes a helix angle of 30°, primary clearance angle of 6°, point angle of 130°, chisel edge angle of 30°, speed of 2600 rev/min and feed rate of 0.05 mm/rev. The optimum parameters obtained in this study are benchmarked against existing industry practice of the capability to produce higher hole quality and efficiency, which is set at 2600 rev/min for speed and 0.1 mm/rev for feed rate. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Advancements in Mechanical Drilling of Composite Laminates)

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Review

Jump to: Research

19 pages, 3069 KiB

Open AccessReview

Drilling Parameters and Post-Drilling Residual Tensile Properties of Natural-Fiber-Reinforced Composites: A Review

by Emani Ram Sai Goutham, Shaik Sajeed Hussain, Chandrasekar Muthukumar, Senthilkumar Krishnasamy, T. Senthil Muthu Kumar, Carlo Santulli, Sivasubramanian Palanisamy, Jyotishkumar Parameswaranpillai and Naveen Jesuarockiam

J. Compos. Sci. 2023, 7(4), 136; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/jcs7040136 - 04 Apr 2023

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1695

Abstract

This review highlights the influence of parameters on the drilling characteristics of biocomposites including natural fibers. The particular structure of natural fibers, including their hierarchized geometry, which potentially causes fibrillation, can result in an increased chance of irregularity of the hole and a more complex mode of delamination or, in general terms, damage to the composite. On the other hand, to attain an effective junction of the laminates in a structure, a nut–bolt procedure must be selected, which requires the performance of a drilling operation. This is becoming increasingly important since the fields of application for natural fibers and their variety have been steadily growing in the last few decades. Additionally, adequately performed drilling operations can address considerations related to circular economy. The drilling characteristics evaluated herein include thrust force, torque, surface roughness, and the delamination factor at the entry and exit of the drilling tool. The variation in tensile strength, stiffness, and strain propagation due to the presence of open holes of various sizes, the number of holes, the holes’ patterns, the effect of the type of fiber of the notches, the fiber architecture, and the fibers’ stacking sequence in biocomposites have also been discussed. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Advancements in Mechanical Drilling of Composite Laminates)

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