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Jamal Sheikh-Ahmad
Petroleum Institute (UAE)
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ABSTRACT
This study investigates the feasibility of electrical discharge machining process (EDM) for drilling carbon fiber
reinforced composites (CFRP). EDM drilling of CFRP was conducted on a small hole machining system using
dionized water as the dielectric fluid. Copper and graphite rods were used as the electrode materials. The effect of
gap current, pulse-on time and electrode material on material removal rate, tool wear and delamination was
investigated. It was found that the highest material removal rates were obtained with graphite electrode at the
highest current and highest pulse-on time (highest energy input). On the other hand, these conditions also
corresponded to the highest electrode wear rate and most delamination damage. Because if this, an optimum set of
conditions for EDM drilling could not be found within the ranges of parameters tested. However, due to the
interaction between process parameters it is found that intermediate levels of pulse-on time cause a slight reduction
in delamination damage.
Keywords: EDM, CFRP, Drilling, Material removal rate, Delamination, Wear
1. INTRODUCTION
Drilling of carbon fiber reinforced polymer composites (CFRPs) is an important secondary machining process in the
aerospace industry and it almost accounts for 50% of the total cost of machining composites. This is due to the fact
that even a smaller private jet has up to 250,000 to 400,000 holes and a bomber or a transport aircraft has 1,000,000
to 2,000,000 holes [1]. CFRPs are difficult to machine by conventional processes because of their inhomogeneous
structure. The defects observed in drilling these materials include hole taper, hole roundness error, surface
roughness, splintering, fiber pullout, matrix cracking and delamination. The existence of these defects poses a threat
to aircraft damage tolerance, survivability and reliability. Therefore there is a need for better machining processes
that can reduce or eliminate machining damage.
Electrical discharge machining (EDM) is a non-traditional machining process typically used to cut hard-to-machine
materials with high accuracy [2]. This is due to the fact that the workpiece is never in contact with the tool and
hence there are no contact forces acting between the tool and the workpiece. Machining is done by the effect of
spark erosion which is generated in a gap between an electrode and the workpiece material. The gap, and sparking
action, are stabilized by a servo control mechanism. A few studies in the literature have addressed the feasibility of
EDM of CFRPs. These studies confirmed the feasibility of this process and pointed out potential problems arising
from its application, specifically thermal damage to the workpiece.
Strong et al. [3] performed EDM drilling of AS4/3501-6 CFRP using a graphite electrode at different levels of gap
voltage, pulse-on time and pulse-off time. Material removal rate (MRR) was evaluated as a measure of
machinability. It was reported that MRR is highest at highest energy levels. However, the size of heat affected zone
was twice as large as the hole diameter. Guu et al. [4] performed drilling of plain weave carbon/phenolic composite
with copper electrode. Delamination damage and surface roughness were evaluated. It was pointed out that
delamination has its highest levels at highest current setting. The experiments carried out by George et al. [5] and
Lau et al. [6] addressed the issue of electrode wear and the effects of current and polarity. Wang et al. [7]
investigated the effect of carbon fiber direction on material removal rate, electrode wear and surface roughness when
copper and graphite electrodes were used. This study was further clarified by Habib et al. [8] who concluded that the
material removal mechanism depends on the direction of the carbon fibers.
The intent of this study is to investigate the use of electrical discharge machining for machining small holes in
aircraft carbon fiber composites and to analyze the effect of process parameters like pulse-on time, interval time, gap
current and tool material on tool wear rate, material removal rate and hole quality.
A similar procedure was used to calculate the tool wear rate (TWR). The electrodes are weighed before and after
machining and the difference was used to give electrode wear in grams. This difference in weight was divided by the
machining time to give the electrode wear rate in grams/min. The graphite electrodes were dried for sufficient time
before weighing them. This is done to avoid any misinterpretation in weighing the graphite electrodes, as they
tended to absorb small amounts of dielectric fluid during machining
Delamination factor gives the extent of hole edge damage and it is defined by
DF
d max
d
(2)
where, DF is delamination factor, dmax is maximum damaged diameter d is the hole diameter as shown in the Figure
3.
Values
0.4, 1.2, 2.0 A
65 V
20, 105, 190 sec
100 sec
Copper, Graphite
o
25 C
17 l/min
dmax
Delamination
Figure 3. Optical images of the EDMed hole top surface (left) and bottom surface (right).
Delamination on top surface of the workpiece was observed due to high localized temperature and high spark
intensity. During machining, base surface of the workpiece was not exposed to these high intensity sparks. Also,
temperature at the base surface was very low as compared to the top surface. Delamination on base surface was
hence very minute and in some cases not observed. Quality of the machined hole was quantified by delamination
factor as defined by equation (2).
3.2 Electrode Wear
In EDM machining material removal takes place due to spark erosion of both workpiece and electrode materials.
During each spark the electrode is bombarded with either electrons or positive ions depending upon electrode
polarity. This bombardment causes localized heat generation at the surface of the electrode which causes localized
melting and/or vaporization of the electrode material. This material removal, which occurs at sparking surface of the
electrode, is called as electrode wear.
Figure 4 shows before and after machining optical images of a graphite electrode. It can be seen from these pictures
that the electrode shows higher amounts of wear on the corner of the circular electrode. This is observed because of
the higher concentration of sparks at the corner. The number of sparks required to produce the 3D shape or cavity in
a workpiece is higher when compared to number of sparks require to produce a flat surface. Since each spark
removes some material from electrode, edge of the circular electrode shows more wear than end of the electrode. In
EDM, low electrode wear is desired. As the machined surface is an exact replica of the electrode, excessive
electrode wear results in poor dimensional accuracy of the hole and poor surface finish.
(a)
(b)
(c)
Figure 4. Optical images of graphite electrode (a) side view of new electrode, (b) end view of worn electrode, (c)
side view of worn electrode
Model
MRR = 2.712E-03 + 0.011 A + 2.938E-05 B - 1.926E-07 B2 + 6.265E-05 AB
MRR = - 8.264E-04 + 0.013 A + 4.723E-05 B - 1.923E-07 B2 + 1.528E-05 AB
TWR = 4.762E-04 + 4.492E-03 A - 3.263E-06 B - 8.480E-04 A2 + 9.851E-06 AB
TWR = 1.417E-03 + 5.263E-04 A - 1.241E-05 B + 8.248E-04 A2 + 9.851E-06 AB
DF = 1.16474 + 0.072151 A - 6.84265E-004 B + 3.83894E-006 B2
R2 (adj)
0.983
0.983
0.925
0.925
0.780
Material removal rate (MRR): Figure 5 shows the effects of current and pulse-on time on MRR for copper and
graphite electrodes. These graphs are plotted for low, medium and high levels of pulse-on time. It can be concluded
form these plots that both electrodes show high MRR at high settings of current and low MRR at low settings of
current. It is also interesting to notice that at low current settings there is no significant increase in the MRR for
corresponding increase in pulse-on time for both copper and graphite electrodes. As current setting increases, any
increase in pulse-on time shows significant increase in MRR for both types of electrodes. This is evidenced by the
presence of the interaction term AB in the regression models for MRR. It can also be inferred from the plots that as
compared to copper electrodes, graphite electrode shows higher MRR and are considerably affected by pulse-on
time at higher current settings.
0.05
0.05
20 sec Model
105 sec Model
190 sec Model
20 sec Exp
105 sec Exp
190 sec Exp
0.03
0.04
MRR (g/min)
MRR (g/min)
0.04
20 sec Model
105 sec Model
190 sec Model
20 sec Exp
105 sec Exp
190 sec Exp
0.02
0.01
0.03
0.02
0.01
Copper Electrode
Graphite Electrode
0.00
0.00
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1.0
1.2
1.4
1.6
1.8
2.0
2.2
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1.0
Current (Amp)
1.2
1.4
1.6
1.8
2.0
2.2
Current (Amp)
Delamination factor: Figure 6 shows the effect of current and pulse-on time on delamination factor for copper and
graphite electrodes. It is clear from these graphs that, for copper as well as for graphite, an increase in the gap
current results in a proportional increase in delamination factor. The effect of pulse-on time on delamination factor
is not significant. DF appears to be slightly higher for low and high pulse-on time and slightly lower for medium
pulse-on time. The highest DF is caused by the highest current and highest pulse-on time (highest discharge energy
level) and the lowest delamination is caused by the lowest current and the intermediate pulse-on time. The graphs
also show that different current and pulse-on time settings give almost same amount of delamination factor for
copper and graphite electrodes. This means that DF is independent of electrode material and the same regression
model applies for both electrodes.
Tool wear rate (TWR): Figure 7 shows the effects of current and pulse-on time on tool wear rate for copper and
graphite electrodes. It is clearly seen from this Figure that the response of TWR to process parameters is different
for copper and graphite electrodes. The differences are in concavity of curvature of the curves and the interaction
between current and pulse-on time. Furthermore, wear rates for the copper electrodes are generally lower than those
for graphite. For copper electrodes TWR increases with an increase in the current with an upward concavity. For
low level of current, an increase in pulse-on time corresponds to a decrease in TWR. This trend is inverted for the
highest current setting. The effect of pulse-on time on TWR at intermediate current setting is not significant.
The graphite electrode TWR also increases with an increase in current. However, the concavity of the curve is down
and which suggests that there exists an optimum value (outside the range of parameters of these experiments) for
TWR after which any increase in current will result in decrease of the TWR. The effect of pulse-on time on TWR is
not significant for the lowest current setting, and it is the highest for the highest current setting. At the intermediate
and high current settings an increase in pulse-on time leads to an increase in TWR.
1.5
1.5
20 sec Model
105 sec Model
190 sec Model
20 sec Exp
105 sec Exp
190 sec Exp
1.4
1.4
1.3
DF
DF
1.3
20 sec Model
105 sec Model
190 sec Model
20 sec Exp
105 sec Exp
190 sec Exp
1.2
1.2
1.1
1.1
Copper Electrode
Graphite Electrode
1.0
1.0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1.0
1.2
1.4
1.6
1.8
2.0
2.2
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
Current (Amp)
1.0
1.2
1.4
1.6
1.8
2.0
2.2
Current (Amp)
0.010
0.010
20 sec Model
105 sec Model
190 sec Model
20 sec Exp
105 sec Exp
190 sec Exp
0.006
0.008
TWR (g/min)
TWR (g/min)
0.008
0.004
0.002
0.006
0.004
20 sec Model
105 sec Model
190 sec Model
20 sec Exp
105 sec Exp
190 sec Exp
0.002
Copper Electrode
0.000
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1.0
1.2
1.4
1.6
1.8
2.0
Graphite Electrode
0.000
2.2
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
Current (Amp)
1.0
1.2
1.4
1.6
1.8
2.0
2.2
Current (Amp)
4. CONCLUSIONS
EDM drilling of plain weave carbon fiber reinforced polymer composite was conducted using copper and graphite
electrodes under different levels of gap current and pulse-on time and machinability was evaluated by material
removal rate, electrode wear rate and delamination damage. The following conclusions can be drawn from this
study:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Material removal rate is influenced by all the three factors namely gap current, pulse-on time and electrode
material. Both copper as well as graphite electrodes show high material removal rates for higher settings of
current and pulse-on time (high discharge energy level).
As compared to copper, graphite electrodes are significantly influenced by any changes in pulse-on time
and current. Also at different settings graphite electrodes give higher MRR as compared to copper.
Tool wear rate is also influenced by gap current, pulse-on time and type of electrode material. For copper
and graphite electrodes, decrease in gap current and pulse-on time (lower energy level) shows significant
decrease in tool wear rate. As compared to graphite, copper electrodes show less amount of tool wear at
different settings of pulse-on time and current.
Delamination factor is only influenced by gap current and pulse-on time. High current and high pulse-on
time (high energy level) result in more delamination rate. Low delamination can be achieved by keeping
current at low level and pulse-on in the rage of 80s to 105s.
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