Parametric Optimization to Minimise the Surface Roughnesson the Machining of GFRP Composites

The present investigation focuses on the parametric influence of machining parameters on the surface finish obtained in turning of glass fiber reinforced polymer （GFRP） composites. The experiments were conducted based on Taguchi＇s experimental design technique. Response surface methodology and analysis of variance （ANOVA） were used to evaluate the composite machining process to perform the optimization. The results revealed that the feed rate was main influencing parameter on the surface roughness. The surface roughness increased with increasing the feed rate but decreased with increasing the cutting speed. Among the other parameters, depth of cut was more insensitive. The predicted values and measured values were fairly close to each other, which indicates that the developed model can be effectively used to predict the surface roughness on the machining of GFRP composites with 95% confidence intervals. Using such model could remarkablely save the time and cost.     

Effect of abrasive jet process parameters on machining glass fibre reinforced polymer composite

An experimental and theoretical research work on abrasive jet machining of glass fiber reinforced polymer composite materials was conducted using abrasive jet machining setup fabricated in our workshop. The objective of this research work is to machine holes on the glass fiber reinforced polymer composite using an abrasive jet machine under various levels of process parameter. The material removal rate and hole geometry (kerf analysis) were observed as a part of the investigation. Four factors five levels central composite rotatable design matrix was used for optimizing the required number of experiments. The objective of the present investigation is to develop mathematical models using the response surface methodology. The adequacy of the models has been checked using the ANOVA technique. Use of the developed mathematical models, material removal rate and hole geometry of the machined glass fibre reinforced polymer composite helps prediction at 95% confidence level.     

Turning of glass with abrasive waterjet

This article reports research results on abrasive waterjet (AWJ) turning of glass. Glass rods, 25 mm in diameter, were turned by using AWJ to investigate the effects of several process parameters on the surface quality of the machined glass surfaces. The parameters studied are rotational speed, stand-off distance, water pressure, nozzle traverse speed, and abrasive flow rate. The results were also compared with those obtained from conventional machining of glass. The results showed that higher traverse rates were associated with an increase in material removal rate and thus an increase in surface roughness and waviness values. The sensitivity of surface quality to rotational speed was more than that to the traverse speed. Good surface finish was achieved at lower traverse speeds and higher turning speeds. Higher stand-off produced rougher surface finish. The best finish was generated when the nozzle consumed 300 g min^-1 of abrasives. Higher pressures did not produce smoother surface finish.     

A trend toward abrasive nano finishing of plane surfaces with magnetic field energy

In new developed parts, roughness has become an effective parameter and influences the performance of the entire system. Manufacturing of parts with fine surface finish have been a target for many advanced industries. Sometimes, it is difficult to reach highly polished surface quality by conventional methods. One of the newly introduced methods for obtaining fine finished surfaces is nano‐scale finishing with abrasive particles in magnetic fields. It is a relatively new finishing process that can be used to produce efficiently shiny surface quality for certain parts [1]. In this process, the cutting movement is provided by the magnetic field energy of permanent or electric poles. Magnetic abrasive particles (MAPs) are used to remove chips, and polish the work‐piece surface [2, 3]. The work‐piece is in the shape of a flat plane. An apparatus has been designed and made for machining the upper face of the plane. Nd‐Fe‐B magnets are used to establish the magnetic field. An NC machine is applied to create the rotational movement of MAPs in the horizontal plane and maintain the vertical position accurately. Various experiments have been designed to specify the machining characteristics of the MAF process. In these experiments different effective conditions are determined. Permanent magnets with 1.2 T magnetic flux density are used as magnetic poles. Homogeneous mechanical mixture of abrasive powder (Silicon Carbide) and ferromagnetic iron particles are used as the MAPs. The experimental setup was designed for finishing the aluminium alloy AA–6061. Test results indicated that the finishing parameters affect the material removal rate (MRR) and surface roughness.     

Machinablity of Hybrid Natural Fiber Composite with and without Filler as Reinforcement

The filler materials are reinforced along with natural fibers in the composite to improve the quality and property of the component materials based on the requirements and its applications. In this paper, hybrid natural fiber composites were developed with and without filler materials as reinforcement. The developed hybrid natural fiber composites are machined using abrasive water jet cutting process with three different cutting parameters. The influences of cutting parameters are evaluated with respect to the kerf wall inclination, material removal rate, and surface roughness. The surface morphology was also studied to infer the basic mechanism involved during composite machining. The hybrid fiber composite with filler has proved that it can produce good engineering component without delamination and fiber pullouts during machining.     

Experimental investigation on the ball burnishing of carbon fiber reinforced polymer

The polymer-based materials are generally used in all industrial applications. Even if polymer bars can be machined easily, they need surface finishing treatment after the machining process. The ductile properties make coarse roughness on the surface that causes the elastic structure of polymer materials. The carbon fiber reinforced composite materials differ from polymer-based materials by high strength and stiffness. Its structure exhibits similar performances such as metallic materials. The effect of ball burnishing on the surface quality of rod workpiece was investigated in this study. To enhance the surface quality of high strength carbon fiber reinforced polymer rod workpiece, burnishing process was performed in three different parameters (force, feed rate, number of passes) and under four different mediums (dry, wet, boron oil, and mineral oil) conditions. The results of the experiments were analyzed, and optimum burnishing parameters were determined and discussed in detail. The best surface roughness value of the CFRP material used in the experiments was obtained as burnishing force: 250 N, feed rate: 0.05 mm/rev, four passes and wet medium. According to the results of variance analysis, it was found that the CFRP workpiece is the important leading factor for surface roughness with a contribution ratio of 62.47%.     

Optimization of process parameters affecting surface roughness in magnetic abrasive finishing process

Development in manufacturing technology enhances the mechanical behavior of machined parts and improves the surface finish with high precision, which conveys the progressive importance of magnetic abrasive finishing (MAF) process. In current research work, magnetic abrasive particles were used as finishing tools during the MAF process. However, these magnetic abrasives are fabricated by special techniques, i.e., the adhesive bonding-based method, the sintering method, the plasma-based method and so on. The present study explores the basic finishing characteristics of the magnetic abrasive produced by the sintering process. After the sintering process, improved quality of magnetic abrasives was obtained, where the abrasive particle sticks on the base metal matrix. The abrasive particle used is alumina powder and the magnetic particle is iron powder. Experiments were performed on Stainless Steel 202 to inspect the sound effects of several process parameters such as rotational speed, electromagnet voltage, machining gap and abrasive particle size on machining performance. Apart from that, surface roughness was also measured, which revealed the influence of the abrasive particle on the machined surface in terms of surface finish. It is observed from this study that appropriate size of magnetic abrasive particle optimizes the surface finish.     

Swirling Abrasive Fluidized Bed Machining: Effect of Process Parameters on Machining Performance

Swirling Abrasive Fluidized Bed Machining (SA-FBM) is a novel variant of Fluidized Bed Machining (FBM). This research focuses on the experiments performed on copper specimens using silicon carbide abrasive particles to investigate the influence of operating parameters such as grain size, superficial velocity, and machining time on metal removal rate, transformation of surface texture, and the surface finish. The study concludes that the surface modification is faster with SA-FBM compared with conventional FBM; the initial roughness conditions of the workpiece have no effect on the maximum possible surface finish; moreover, for faster metal removal, higher superficial velocity, and for better surface finish, fine abrasive grains are preferred.     

芳纶浆粕纤维增强均质气压砂轮特性

基于Halpin-Tsai方程,引入纤维取向因子,建立了芳纶浆粕纤维增强气压砂轮内橡胶层模量预测模型,描述了气压砂轮基体在动态变化过程中的应力-应变关系。通过ANSYS仿真分析,得出了气压砂轮在不同纤维体积分数下的应力-应变规律,证实了芳纶浆粕纤维增强方法可以改善砂轮基体接触形变缺陷问题。采用混炼法制备了芳纶浆粕纤维增强的橡胶基体,观测到了多维网状纤维微观分布结构,并采用拉伸试验验证了弹性模量预测模型。设计了芳纶浆粕纤维增强气压砂轮加工试验。证明了经芳纶浆粕纤维增强后的气压砂轮可以迅速提升工件表面质量,并使划痕损伤获得一定的控制。     

Study and evaluation of abrasive water jet turning process performance on AA5083

In this study, the effect of processing parameters on surface roughness and macro surface characteristics was analyzed during the machining of Ø30 mm and 300 mm aluminum alloy AA5083 abrasive water jets. As the processing parameters (up to 10 mm min⁻¹, 15 mm min⁻¹, 20 mm min⁻¹ and 25 mm min⁻¹), abrasive flow rate (50 g min⁻¹, 150 g min⁻¹, 250 g min⁻¹ and 350 g min⁻¹), the lathe chuck rotational speed (25 min⁻¹, 50 min⁻¹, 75 min⁻¹ and 100 min⁻¹) and the nozzle approach distance (2 mm, 5 mm, 8 mm and 11 mm) were used in experiments. In experimental studies, the pump pressure (360 MPa) was used as a constant, in the form of an abrasive Garnet (100 mesh), and the nozzle diameter as 0.76 mm. According to the findings, the best results in terms of surface roughness were obtained as a result of turning speed and abrasive flow rate. When the macro surface characteristics were examined, it was found that the lathe chuck rotational speed increased, the rate of nozzle progression was low, the rate of abrasive flow was high and the nozzle approach distance was lower and the smoother surfaces were obtained.     

An investigation on surface roughness of granite machined by abrasive waterjet

Abrasive waterjet (AWJ) cutting is an emerging technology which enables the shaping of practically all engineering materials. However, AWJ cutting may cause roughness and waviness on the cut surface. This significantly affects the dimensional accuracy of the machined part and the quality of surface finish. In this study, the surface roughness of three granites is experimentally investigated for varying process parameters in abrasive waterjet. The philosophy of the Taguchi design is followed in the experimental study. Effects of the control (process) factors on the surface roughness are presented in terms of the mean of means responses. Additionally, the data obtained are evaluated statistically using the analysis of variance (ANOVA) to determine significant process parameters affecting the surface roughness. Furthermore, effects of the material properties on the surface roughness are assessed. It was statistically found that the water pressure and the abrasive flow rate are the most significant factors influencing the surface roughness of granites. Additionally, a consistent relationship between the material grain size and surface roughness of the granites was observed.     

Study of cutting fiber-reinforced composites by using abrasive water-jet with cutting head oscillation

An experimental and theoretical research work on abrasive water-jet (AWJ) oscillation cutting of glass fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP) composite materials was conducted at the Water-jet Laboratory of the Industrial Research Institute of Swinburne (IRIS). The objective of this research work was to conduct a comparative study of the oscillation and normal (without head oscillation) cutting of GFRP composite materials and compare the performances the two processes. This new technique which is a variant of the traditional AWJ cutting technique, makes use of a back and forth motion of the cutting head which is superimposed on the normal linear motion to effect optimum loading of the cutting forces on the workpiece material and scan the cut-wall surface to also improve surface finish. The technique was used for cutting GFRP composites materials and the qualities of resulting surfaces were measured using stylus type equipment. A comparison of the results indicates that there is significant improvement in the quality of surfaces produced by head oscillation technique than normal AWJ cutting. In some of the samples, an improvement, in surface quality, as measured by R_a values, up to 20% was found.     

Cutting performance of glass-vinyl ester composite by abrasive water jet

Polymer matrix composite materials have been increasingly used in aerospace, defense, automotive and marine industries. In these fields, nontraditional machining method of abrasive water jet (AWJ) has been used significantly in order to form polymer matrix components. In this study, glass fiber reinforced vinyl ester composite plates have been investigated under various AWJ cutting parameters by using the Taguchi experimental design in detail. For Taguchi experimental design, experimental parameters of standoff distance, abrasive mass flow rate, traverse speed, pressure and material thickness were determined at three levels. Top kerf width and the surface roughness were investigated in order to understand the cutting performance. Finally, linear regression models were conducted and all performance parameters were examined using analysis of variance (ANOVA) and main effects plots. According to the overall test results, standoff distance was determined as the most effective one. The optimal parameter levels were obtained by the ‘main effects plots’, and finally, the predictive modeling was validated by performing the optimal combination of parameter levels.     

Surface roughness characterization of Nicalon and HI-Nicalon ceramic fibers by atomic force microscopy

The behavior of ceramic composites is governed by the nature of the fiber/matrix interface. Fiber surface roughness is a key parameter in the behavior at the fiber/matrix interface (e.g., debonding, interfacial sliding) and the overall behavior of a composite. Using an atomic force microscope (AFM), quantitative surface roughness values of ceramic fibers can be obtained, with an uncertainty of 1nm. The AFM technique was used to obtain surface roughness profiles and analysis on Si-C-O and Si-C fibers (Nicalon, and a new, virtually oxygen-free Si-C fiber, HI-Nicalon). The latter fiber had a slightly higher roughness amplitude, which may be caused by differences in processing. Although the differences in roughness between the fibers were small, the calculated radial strain and radial normal stress in composites reinforced with HI-Nicalon were higher than in those reinforced with Nicalon. This result indicates that small changes in the roughness of a fiber can significantly affect the debonding and sliding properties between the fiber and matrix.     

Study of Magnetic Abrasive Finishing for AISI321 Stainless Steel

In recent years, magnetic abrasive finishing (MAF) has become a reliable unconventional technology among researchers in industries due to need for the surface roughness reduction in metals. In this study, experiments based on influential parameters in the MAF process including rotational speed, working gap, and abrasive particle size were designed and conducted in the full factorial method in order to achieve the optimum parameters in finishing of steel AISI 321. A combination of silicon carbide (SiC), iron (Fe), and oil (SAE40) was utilized as magnetic abrasive tool. Prior to the experiments, the surface of the workpiece was abraded to the lowest value of roughness in order to obtain accurate results through the procedure. In general, the results indicate that the parameters of working gap, rotational speed, and abrasive particle size influence the surface roughness from the most to the least, respectively. Indeed, the minimum surface roughness is obtained through working gap of 1 mm, workpiece rotational speed of 500 rpm, and abrasive particle size of 100 mesh, with 50% improvement compared with initial surface roughness. Finally, the more involved parameters deviate from optimum values, the worse results are obtained compared with optimum acquired consequences.     

Objective Surface Evaluation of Fiber Reinforced Polymer Composites

The mechanical properties of advanced composites are essential for their structural performance, but the surface finish on exterior composite panels is of critical importance for customer satisfaction. This paper describes the application of wavelet texture analysis (WTA) to the task of automatically classifying the surface finish properties of two fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) composite construction types (clear resin and gel-coat) into three quality grades. Samples were imaged and wavelet multi-scale decomposition was used to create a visual texture representation of the sample, capturing image features at different scales and orientations. Principal components analysis was used to reduce the dimensionality of the texture feature vector, permitting successful classification of the samples using only the first principal component. This work extends and further validates the feasibility of this approach as the basis for automated non-contact classification of composite surface finish using image analysis.     

Short-aramid-fiber toughening of epoxy adhesive joint between carbon fiber composites and metal substrates with different surface morphology

Carbon-fiber epoxy composites were bonded to four different types of aluminum substrates with different surface roughness and finish. The four aluminum substrates considered in this study have the following surface conditions: two solid aluminum substrates polished with two different grades of sandpapers, and two porous aluminum foams with two different as-received surface conditions, one with a patterned surface finish and one with rough pore structures. Moreover, the thin epoxy adhesive joints between the carbon-fiber face sheets and aluminum substrates were reinforced by adding short aramid fibers. During the fabrication process of the hybrid laminar, sparsely-distributed short aramid fibers were inserted between the fiber-metal interface to promote bridged fibers for tougher and stronger adhesive bonding, while at the same time to minimize any significant change in the thickness of the adhesive joint. Measurements of the critical energy release rate showed that the toughening effects of the low-density short aramid fibers were influenced by the metal-substrate surface roughness and finish. Further comparison indicated that the interfacial fracture toughness of aramid-fiber interleave adhesive joints increased via increase of surface roughness of metal substrates. The surface-roughness effect of metal substrate mainly depends on whether the free fiber ends of the short aramid fibers were pressed and embedded into the surface cavities of aluminum substrates according to scanning electron microscopy observations. The results indicated that the properties and performances of aramid-fiber interleaved adhesive joints between the carbon-fiber face sheets and aluminum substrates could be improved by surface treatments on the aluminum substrates to achieve appropriately surface roughness.     

Parametric optimization of abrasive water-jet machining processes using grey wolf optimizer

Abrasive water-jet machining (AWJM) is a hybrid advanced machining process, which can be economically applied to machine almost any kind of material. It employs a high velocity waterjet to propel abrasive particles through a nozzle on the workpiece surface for material removal. The machining performance of AWJM process naturally depends on its several control (input) parameters, like water pressure, nozzle diameter, jet velocity, abrasive concentration, nozzle tip distance etc., which have also predominant effects on its responses, i.e., material removal rate, surface roughness, overcut, taper etc. In this paper, a new evolutionary algorithm, i.e., grey wolf optimizer (GWO), a technique based on the hunting behavior of grey wolves, is applied for finding out the optimal parametric combinations of AWJM processes. The main advantage of this algorithm is that it does not accumulate towards some local optima, and the presence of a social hierarchy helps it in storing the best possible solutions obtained so far. The derived results using GWO exhibit a significant improvement in the response values as compared to the previous attempts for parametric optimization of AWJM processes while applying other algorithms.     

CFRP筋增强ECC梁弯曲性能试验研究

为研究碳纤维增强树脂复合材料(Carbon fiber reinforced polymer,CFRP)筋/超高韧性纤维增强水泥基复合材料(Engineered cementitious composite,ECC)梁的抗弯性能,对3根CFRP筋/ECC梁、1根玻璃纤维增强树脂复合材料(Glass fiber reinforced polymer,GFRP)筋/梁和1根CFRP筋混凝土梁进行了四点弯曲试验,分析了配筋率、纤维增强树脂复合材料(Fiber reinforced polymer,FRP)筋类型和基体类型对梁抗弯性能的影响。试验结果表明:CFRP筋/ECC梁与GFRP筋/ECC梁和CFRP筋混凝土梁类似,均经历了弹性阶段、带裂缝工作阶段和破坏阶段;配筋率对CFRP筋/ECC梁的受弯性能影响较大。随着配筋率的增加,CFRP筋/ECC梁的承载能力不断提高,延性性能逐渐减弱;ECC材料优异的应变硬化能力和受压延性,使得CFRP筋/ECC梁的极限承载能力和变形能力均优于CFRP筋混凝土梁;由于ECC材料多裂缝开裂能力,CFRP筋/ECC梁开裂后,纵筋表面应变分布比CFRP筋混凝土梁更均匀; 由于聚乙烯醇(Polyvinyl alcohol,PVA)纤维的桥联作用,CFRP筋/ECC梁破坏时,其表面出现了大量的细密裂缝,且能保持较好的完整性和自复位能力;正常使用阶段,CFRP筋/ECC梁的最大弯曲裂缝宽度均小于CFRP筋混凝土梁。最后,根据试验结果,建立了基于等效应力图的CFRP筋/ECC梁弯曲承载力简化计算模型,确定模型中的相关系数。由简化模型计算的极限承载力与试验结果具有较好的相关性。