Experimental and numerical analysis on drilling of carbon fibre reinforced plastic and aluminium stacks

In this paper, experimental and numerical study of drilling of carbon fibre reinforced plastic (CFRP) laminate with aluminium alloy stacks has been carried out. Drilling of these multi-materials is a challenging task to manufacturing engineers because of different mechanical properties of materials. In this work, the impact of the machining parameters on the effect of twist drill and the geometry of double cone drill on cutting forces, holes quality and on CFRP/Al interface have been investigated. From the experimental study, it was found that the double cone drills induce less thrust force compared to the standard twist drill. From the numerical analysis based on the linear fracture mechanics of the CFRP and the plastic behaviour of the aluminium with isotropic hardening, on the one hand, the critical thrust force responsible for the delamination of the last ply as a function of the aluminium thickness has been identified and on the other hand, the maximum thrust force responsible for the interface separation of CFRP/AI has been predicted as a function of the aluminium thickness. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.