Experimental Study on Drilling Process of CFRP Composite Laminate

This thesis deals with carbon fiber reinforced plastics (CFRP) composites, an advanced material which is widely used in manufacturing aircrafts because of their unique mechanical and physical properties. The research mainly involved drilling of CFRP. This study is focused on analyzing the thrust force and delamination against drilling parameters namely feed rate, spindle speed and type of tool materials. Also, the optimal parameters were chosen using an optimization method called D optimal. It was observed that the higher the feed rate and spindle speed employed, the higher the thrust force and delamination occur. The split point fibre (SPF) drill gave the lowest values of thrust force and delamination. Based on the optimal parameters, a verification test was conducted and the prediction error was 2.3% and 5.6% for thrust force and delamination respectively. This shows, that the optimal parameters obtained is reliable as it could improve the process considerably. The results of this study could be used as a reference for further research and studies on drilling of CFRP.