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Composite Structures
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/compstruct
School of Mechanical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, PR China
Shanghai Aerospace Control Technology Institute, Shanghai 201109, PR China
a r t i c l e
i n f o
Article history:
Available online 16 May 2015
Keywords:
Unidirectional carbon ber reinforced
polymer (UD-CFRP)
Orthogonal cutting
Anisotropy
Cutting force
Specic cutting energy
Machinability
a b s t r a c t
High-strength unidirectional carbon ber reinforced polymer (UD-CFRP) has gradually become one major
material for primary load-bearing structural components of aircrafts, and related machining demands are
also ever increasing. Owing to its prominent anisotropy and heterogeneity, UD-CFRP laminate has rather
poor machinability. This paper conducted orthogonal cutting tests on T700/800 high-strength UD-CFRP
laminates, and investigated machining mechanism by studying cutting mechanics characteristics in cutting process, in order to provide the basis for improving their machinability. Experimental results showed
that the cutting force and specic cutting energy of T700 and T800 UD-CFRP laminates were all signicantly directional; and at the conditions of same ber orientation angle, greater cutting force and specic
cutting energy were found for cutting of T800 UD-CFRP than that for cutting of T700. As the cutting speed
increased, main cutting force and radial thrust force both decreased and specic energy map shrank
rapidly, indicating reduced cutting energy consumption, and improved machinability of CFRPs. With
the increase in cutting depth, main cutting force and radial thrust force both exhibited increasing trends,
but specic cutting energy map narrowed, indicating improved machinability.
2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
As the most representative advanced resin-based composite
material, carbon ber reinforced polymer (CFRP) has been used
in the eld of aviation manufacturing since the 1970s owing to
its advantages such as high specic strength, high specic stiffness,
corrosion resistance and strong designability [1,2]. CFRP has gradually replaced traditional metal materials like aluminum alloy and
high-strength steel to become an important aviation structural
material, such as bearing fairing, empennage-level secondary
load-bearing components, fuselage, wing and other large primary
load-bearing structures [3,4]. As an example, currently, CFRP has
been fully applied to the large primary load-bearing structures of
advanced large civil aircrafts like B787, A380, A350 and A400M.
Generally, large CFRP components can be manufactured directly
through material molding. But in order to allow the CFRP components to meet the geometric dimension, shape accuracy and surface quality required for nal components, secondary machining
is often needed after the material molding, and common processing methods include edge trimming and hole machining.
375
Nomenclature
ac
CFRP
CVD
UD-CFRP
Fc
Fp
Fr
cutting depth
carbon ber reinforced polymer
chemical vapor deposition
unidirectional carbon ber reinforced polymer
main cutting force
radial thrust force
resultant cutting force
re
t
u
vc
a
c0
h
376
Table 1
Mechanical properties of unidirectional CFRP laminates.
Material
Tensile strength
(MPa)
Tensile modulus
(GPa)
Compressive
strength (MPa)
Compressive
modulus (GPa)
In-plane shear
strength (MPa)
90 tensile strength
(MPa)
Bending strength
(MPa)
T700
T800
2450
2840
125
168
1430
1570
145
92
98
70
80
1580
1670
Note: Unspecied mechanical property parameters all represent the properties in 0 direction.
377
cutting direction, which could reach 96.3 N and 72.9 N, respectively, for T800 and T700. The position with the best machinability
was the reverse ber direction of 120150, where Fc values of
T800 and T700 were the lowest, which were 27.2 N and 17.9 N,
respectively. In addition, the value of Fc was also relatively low
when the angle was 0 or 180, which was 32.3 N for T800, and
26.7 N for T700, respectively.
As to the radial thrust force Fp, it can be seen from Fig. 7(b) that
in the forward ber direction with h < 90, Fp showed piecewise
linear growth as angle h increased; the growth was faster within
3.2. Effects of ber type and ber orientation angle on specic cutting
energy and specic energy map
Specic cutting energy refers to the energy consumed for
removal of unit volume of material in orthogonal cutting [25],
which can be expressed as:
Fc
tac
where Fc is the main cutting force, and t and ac are cutting width
and cutting depth in orthogonal cutting, respectively. Specic cutting energy is an important parameter for machinability of
378
Spindle
Flywheel
Data acquisition and analysis
Cutter
CFRP laminate
Kistler dynamometer
Amplifier
0
Cutter
vc
ac
Workpiece
Fc
Fp
Fig. 6. Photo of orthogonal cutting of CFRP unidirectional laminates.
379
Fig. 7. Effects of ber type and ber orientation angle on cutting force in horizontal
direction (a) and vertical direction (b).
Fig. 8. Effects of ber type and ber orientation angle on specic energy and
resultant cutting force.
380
Fig. 9. Specic energy map in cutting T700/T800 CFRP of one uniform unidirectional laminate.
Fig. 10. Effects of cutting speed on cutting force in horizontal direction (a) and vertical direction (b).
Fig. 11. Effects of cutting depth on cutting force in horizontal direction (a) and vertical direction (b).
faster with increase in ac; when ac > re, Fc had reduced sensitivity to
changes in ac, and grew slower with an increasing ac. Size effect
had certain directionality, which appeared in the directions of
h = 0/45/135/165, but was not obvious in h = 90 direction. In
addition, directional difference of main cutting force Fc did not
change with ac, and the difference in Fc between different ber
directions almost had no change (except for h = 90) under different cutting depths.
The effects of cutting depth ac on radial thrust force Fp, in contrast, was relatively simple, without size effect near the rounded
edge radius re. Fp roughly showed a proportional growth trend with
the increasing ac in different ber directions. Meanwhile, the anisotropy of Fp was also amplied with the increase of ac. When cutting UD-CFRP, it would result in more pronounced directionality of
Fp with increasing ac. Maximum value of Fp occurred in the h = 90
direction, while the minimum value occurred in the h = 0 direction. The difference between maximum and minimum would be
amplied in proportion with the increase of ac.
3.5. Effects of cutting speed on specic energy map
Fig. 12 shows the maps of specic energy for T700 CFRP at different cutting speeds. As can be seen from the gure, cutting speed
381
Fig. 12. Effects of cutting speed on specic energy map of T700 CFRP.
382
Fig. 13. Effects of cutting depth on specic energy map of T700 CFRP.
4. Conclusions
This paper studied the effects of ber orientation angle on cutting force characteristics of UD-CFRP laminates using the orthogonal cutting test, and reached the following conclusions.
Cutting force and specic cutting energy of T700 and T800
CFRPs were all signicantly directional. At the same ber orientation angle conditions, T800 always had greater cutting force and
specic cutting energy than T700.
Fiber orientation angle had signicant effects on main cutting
force Fc and radial thrust force Fp. In the forward ber direction
of h < 90, Fc and Fp increased linearly as the angle h increased; in
the reverse ber direction of h > 90, Fc and Fp maintained at relatively low levels except for a slight rise in the h = 165 direction.
Fc and Fp had the peak value in the vertical direction of h = 90.
As the cutting speed increased, Fc and Fp both decreased; under
high-speed cutting conditions, the cutting anisotropy of CFRP
showed a weakening trend. With the increase of cutting depth, Fc
and Fp both exhibited upward trends; Fc has a size effect when cutting depth is close to the rounded edge radius.
With the increase of cutting speed, specic energy map shrank
quickly, indicating reduced cutting energy consumption, and
383
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