Experimental and Numerical Investigations in Conventional and Ultrasonically Assisted Drilling of CFRP Laminate

Carbon fiber-reinforced plastic (CFRP) composites are attractive for many industrial applications due to their superior properties. The parts made from CFRP are usually manufactured to a near-net shape; however, various machining processes, such as drilling, are often required to facilitate component assemblies. Conventional Drilling (CD) of CFRP induces high stresses in the vicinity of the drilled hole; along with high thrust forces on a drilling tool. An advanced drilling technique known as Ultrasonically Assisted Drilling (UAD) has been used to demonstrate its several advantages over CD including a reduced thrust force. A 3D finite element (FE) models simulating CD and UAD techniques for drilling in CFRP laminates were developed using the general-purpose FE software ABAQUS/Explicit. The numerical results obtained with the FE model were found to be in a good agreement with the experimental data.