Experimental investigation on delamination in nanocomposite drilling

Abstract

This article addresses the influence of cutting parameters on drilling-induced delamination of woven glass fiber-epoxy composites reinforced with functionalized multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs). The input parameters include feed rate, cutting speed, drill size, and wt. % carbon nanotubes present in nanocomposite laminates. Experiments were conducted based on Taguchi L16 orthogonal array and analysis of variance was conducted to determine the significance of each parameter. The results indicate that the main effects of nano content, feed rate, and spindle speed are significant, while the effect of drill diameter is negligible. Furthermore, the optimum drilling conditions for minimum delamination were determined according to the Taguchi’s S/N ratio analysis.

Keywords

• nanocomposites
• multi-walled carbon nanotubes
• drilling process
• delamination
• taguchi
• analysis of variance