Numerical simulation of damage under thermal effect in drilling CFRP

Abstract Carbon fiber reinforced plastics (CFRP) is sensitive to temperature, serious drilling damage occurs due to the accumulation of cutting heat during the drilling process. In order to explore the thermal effect on drilling damage, in this study, a stress–strain model of CFRP with thermal effect is developed first. According to the calculation results, it can be obtained that the initial failure strength of single layer of CFRP reduces by 22.97% as the temperature increasing from 160.68 to 185.44°C. Furtherly, simulation model of drilling CFRP is established based on the proposed constitutive model, according to the simulated results, it can be obtained that the intralaminar damage is mainly presented as fiber tensile failure and matrix tensile failure, and the damage variable of matrix tensile failure increases evidently with the increase of drilling temperature. Moreover, the damage of hole wall is more serious under higher drilling temperature, which is presented as pitting defects with the fiber cutting angle of 90°–135°. Highlights A stress–strain model of CFRP with thermal effect is proposed. Initial failure strength of single layer of CFRP is obtained. Simulation model of drilling CFRP is developed based on the proposed constitutive model. Matrix tensile failure is more sensitive to temperature.