Experimental Investigation of Thrust Force, Delamination and Surface Roughness in Drilling Hybrid Structural Composites

Vigneshwaran Shanmugam; Uthayakumar Marimuthu; Sundarakannan Rajendran; Arumugaprabu Veerasimman; Adamkhan Mahaboob Basha; Mohd Shukry Bin Abdul Majid; Rasoul Esmaeely Neisiany; Michael Försth; Gabriel Sas; Seyed Mohammad Javad Razavi; Oisik Das

doi:10.3390/ma14164468

Experimental Investigation of Thrust Force, Delamination and Surface Roughness in Drilling Hybrid Structural Composites

Materials (Basel). 2021 Aug 9;14(16):4468. doi: 10.3390/ma14164468.

Affiliations

¹ Department of Mechanical Engineering, Saveetha Institute of Medical and Technical Sciences, Saveetha School of Engineering, Chennai 602105, India.
² Department of Mechanical Engineering, Kalasalingam Academy of Research and Education, Krishnankoil 626126, India.
³ Faculty of Mechanical Engineering Technology, Universiti Malaysia Perlis (UniMAP), Arau 02600, Perlis, Malaysia.
⁴ Department of Materials and Polymer Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Hakim Sabzevari University, Sabzevar 9617976487, Iran.
⁵ Structural and Fire Engineering Division, Department of Civil, Environmental and Natural Resources Engineering, Luleå University of Technology, 97187 Luleå, Sweden.
⁶ Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, 7491 Trondheim, Norway.

Abstract

Filled hybrid composites are widely used in various structural applications where machining is critical. Hence, it is essential to understand the performance of the fibre composites' machining behaviour. As such, a new hybrid structural composite was fabricated with redmud as filler and sisal fibre as reinforcement in polyester matrix. The composite was then tested for its drilling performance. A comprehensive drilling experiment was conducted using Taguchi L27 orthogonal array. The effect of the drill tool point angle, the cutting speed, the feed rate on thrust force, delamination, and burr formation were analysed for producing quality holes. The significance of each parameter was analysed, and the experimental outcomes revealed some important findings in the context of the drilling behaviour of sisal fibre/polyester composites with redmud as a filler. Spindle speed contributed 39% in affecting the thrust force, while the feed rate had the maximum influence of ca. 38% in affecting delamination.

Keywords: delamination; design of experiments; drilling; fibre; hybrid structural composite; surface roughness; thrust force.