DRILLING OF FIBRE REINFORCED PLASTICS USING FEM APPROACH

Abstract

The Fiber Reinforced Plastics (FRPs) are being used widely in the most diverse applications ranging from the aerospace to the sports goods industry. Although the primary manufacturing strategies for FRPs are well developed and mostly automated, a lot remains to be done in the field of secondary manufacturing. The secondary manufacturing in terms of machining in general and drilling in particular is important to facilitate the assembly operations of structurally intricate composite products. The drilling of holes in FRPs leads to drilling induced damage which is an important research area. The researchers worldwide have tried to minimize the damage by optimizing the operating variables, suggesting optimal tool materials and drill tool designs as well as by developing unconventional methods of hole making. Most of the work done so far has been experimental in nature with little or no focus on numerical simulation of the drilling behavior of FRPs. In the present research endeavor, a Finite Element (FE) model has been developed using a standard FE package (ABAQUS/Explicit V6.8) and the investigation focuses on the drill point geometry as an important parameter governing the drilling induced damage. Four different drill point geometries, namely the Twist drill, Trepanning tool, Parabolic drill and Jo drill have been investigated.