Mechanics of material removal when cutting natural fiber reinforced thermoplastic composites

Results show that UDF/PP composites produce a continuous chip at all the considered cutting conditions. This is inherently related to the specific mechanical behavior of flax fibers inside the thermoplastic matrix under cutting solicitations. The cutting behavior induces a consequent surface damages in the form of debonding zones and uncut fiber extremities. Results demonstrate that the cutting depth has the most significant influence on the machinability after sorting the pertinent scales of the cut surface using the multiscale surface analysis approach.