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

A 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 degrees, 45 degrees, and 90 degrees, 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 degrees. The heat-induced resin coating and resin ridges on the machined surface were obviously observed at the fiber orientations of 45 degrees and 135 degrees. 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 degrees-45 degrees, and the thermal subsurface damage decrease while the mechanical subsurface damage increases with the increase of the fiber orientation range from 90 degrees to 180 degrees.

Automated summary

In this article, a three-dimensional microscopic finite element cutting model with thermo-mechanical coupling was developed to investigate the mechanical behavior and temperature distribution during cutting of CFRP composites. The predictions of the model were compared with experimental data and showed good agreement. The model accurately predicted cutting force, cutting temperature, and subsurface damage at various fiber orientations.