An experimental evaluation of cryogenic machining in the drilling of carbon fiber reinforced plastics for aerospace

Abstract

The present research aims at studying both dry machining and alternative solutions to wet machining in the drilling of carbon fiber-reinforced polymers (CFRPs). CFRPs are key materials in aerospace and their drilling is critical and challenging. Specifically, cryogenic fluids such as CO2 and N2 were investigated. Drilling tests were performed using three different CFRP laminates. These CFRP laminates are composed of various unidirectional plies of different orientations. Thus, the configurations to analyze were: 0/90/45, 30/60 and 0/90. As output variables, surface roughness, diameter deviation, delamination and thrust forces were analyzed. In general, the internal application of CO2 and dry machining were the best- and worst-performing techniques for surface roughness, respectively. Regarding the dimensional quality, both CO2 and dry machining offered the best results. In the case of LN2 or LN2 + CO2, the results showed that the CFRP configuration is critical for the obtained results. However, it was identified that cryogenics can improve the results of the dry machining process under certain conditions in terms of delamination. Finally, in general, CO2 provided the worst results when attending to the thrust forces.

Special Issue of the Manufacturing Engineering Society-2022 (SIMES-2022): Advances in materials design, processing and their applications

“…The 13 manuscripts published in this Special Issue present cutting-edge advances in the field of Manufacturing Engineering, focusing specifically on materials design, materials processing and their applications. These papers deal with advanced materials processing and characterization of materials by analytical, numerical and/or experimental techniques, 9–12 advances in materials processing technologies, 13–16 additive manufacturing 17–19 and tribology, failure and degradation. 20,21 Therefore, among them, the topics “Advanced materials processing and characterization of materials by analytical, numerical and/or experimental techniques” and “advances in materials processing technologies” collect the highest number of contributions (representing 62%), followed by the topics “Additive manufacturing” (23%) and “Tribology, failure and degradation” (15%).…”