Title: A study to minimise delamination value during drilling chopped strand mat GFRP material

Authors: T. Panneerselvam; S. Raghuraman; A. Vidyasundar

Addresses: School of Mechanical Engineering, SASTRA University, Thanjavur – 613 401, Tamil Nadu, India ' School of Mechanical Engineering, SASTRA University, Thanjavur – 613 401, Tamil Nadu, India ' School of Mechanical Engineering, SASTRA University, Thanjavur – 613 401, Tamil Nadu, India

Abstract: Glass fibre reinforced polymer (GFRP) composites are most widely used in modern day industries because of their enhanced mechanical and structural properties. Drilling this kind of composite materials is usually associated with a major problem known as delamination, a mode of failure in composite material which leads to poor dimensional stability, surface roughness and long term performance deterioration. This study is focused to minimise the delamination by the optimal set of drilling parameters such as drill bit material, drill bit diameter, spindle speed and feed rate during drilling chopped strand mat GFRP. Using Taguchi's L₉ orthogonal array design, the experiments were conducted and the data obtained were analysed using signal-to-noise ratio to identify the optimal drilling conditions and analysis of variance to find the significance of the drilling parameters. The predicted value was checked by conducting a confirmation test and the results showed a good agreement between predicted and actual value of delamination.

Keywords: entry delamination; Taguchi methods; orthogonal array; signal-to-noise ratio; SNR; analysis of variance; ANOVA; machining; glass fibre reinforced polymer; GFRP composites; drilling; drill bit material; drill bit diameter; spindle speed; feed rate; chopped strand mat GFRP.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMMM.2014.060545

International Journal of Machining and Machinability of Materials, 2014 Vol.15 No.3/4, pp.136 - 146

Received: 17 Jul 2013
Accepted: 17 Sep 2013
Published online: 13 May 2014 *

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