Hole surface strengthening mechanism and riveting fatigue life of CFRP/aluminum stacks in robotic rotary ultrasonic drilling

Carbon fiber reinforced plastic(CFRP)and aluminum stacks are widely used in aviation industry due to light weight and high performance.Millions of rivet holes need to be drilled on body materials,and more than 80%of fatigue cracks occur at the connection holes,so the damage and residual stress of hole surface have crucial effect on the riveting fatigue life of CFRP/aluminum stacks and the flight performance.Recently,robotic rotary ultrasonic drilling(RRUD)technology is a promising method to machine the stacks.However,the hole surface strengthening mechanism in RRUD and the service performance of the riveting joint are not verified.Thus,in this paper,the hole surface strengthening mechanism of RRUD for CFRP/aluminum stacks is investigated,a theoretical residual stress model is established,and the fatigue life experiment of riveted joints is conducted.Firstly,analysis on residual stress in RRUD is carried out with consideration of strengthening force and cutting temperature.Residual stress model is established based on the calculation of elastic stress,plastic stress and stress release.Validation experiment results show that ultrasonic vibration changes residual stress from tensile stress to compressive stress.At the same time,comparative damage analysis of CFRP hole exit and hole surface in robotic conventional drilling(RCD)and RRUD is presented.Finally,fatigue strength experiments of riveted joints are conducted for performance verification.Experimental results indicate that fatigue life of single-hole riveted joints is increased by 68%with ultrasonic vibration,and four-hole riveted joint arranged according to aerospace design standards is increased by more than 86%.

Cutting force and specific energy for rotary ultrasonic drilling based on kinematics analysis of vibration effectiveness

Rotary ultrasonic drilling(RUD)has become an effective approach for machining advanced composites which are widely using in the field of aeronautics.The cutting kinematics and the corresponding material removal mechanisms are distinct in different drilling areas during RUD.However,these fundamentals have not been fully considered in the existing studies.In this research,two distinct forms of interaction induced by ultrasonic vibration were considered as impact-separation and vibratory lapping between the abrasives and workpiece.And the conditions to guarantee the effectiveness of these interactions were obtained to eliminate diminishing effects of ultrasonic vibration.Based on indentation fracture theory,the penetration depth of abrasives and the axial drilling force model was derived for RUD.The verification tests of C/SiC composites resulted in a prediction error within 15%.Due to the minimal volume of material removed during each vibration cycle,the drilling force was more stable in vibration assisted mode.The specific drilling energy of RUD was firstly calculated based on the measured drilling load.It was found the drilling parameters should be matched with vibration frequency and amplitude to make better usage of the advantages of ultrasonic vibration,which is critical in the vibration assisted processing of advanced materials.

STUDY ON ULTRASONIC VIBRATION DRILLING IN CARBON FIBER REINFORCED POLYMERS

This paper researches ultrasonic vibration drilling of carbon fiber reinforced polymers composites that are hard, brittle, and have low shear strength between layers. An experiment plan has been developed to reduce the axial force. Experimental studies have been done on the influence of process parameters, tool structures on the drilling axial force. The drilling mechanism is specially investigated. Thus an effective method is presented to reduce the drilling axial force. The authors suppose that ultrasonic vibration drilling is feasible for carbon fiber reinforced polymers composites.

Ironing effect on surface integrity and fatigue behavior during ultrasonic peening drilling of Ti-6Al-4V

Imposing compressive residual stress field around a fastening hole serves as a universal method to enhance the hole fatigue strength in the aircraft assembly filed.Ultrasonic Peening Drilling(UPD)is a recently proposed hybrid hole making process,which can achieve an integration of strengthening and precision-machining with a one-shot-drilling operation.Due to the ironing effect of tool flank surface,UPD introduces large compressive residual stress filed in hole subsurface.In order to reveal the strengthening mechanism of UPD,the influence of ultrasonic vibration and tool dynamic relief angle on ironing coverage rate and its corresponding effect on surface integrity in UPD were analyzed.The experiments were conducted to verify the influence of ironing effect on surface integrity and fatigue behavior of Ti-6Al-4V hole in UPD.The results indicate that the specimen features smaller surface roughness,higher micro-hardness,plastic deformation degree and circumferential compress residual stress under higher ironing coverage rate.The fatigue life increases with the raise of ironing coverage rate,and the fatigue source site in UPD shifts from surface to subsurface comparing with that without vibration assistance.The results demonstrates that a better strengthening effect can be obtained by reasonably controlling the ironing coverage rate in UPD.

Hole quality in longitudinal–torsional coupled ultrasonic vibration assisted drilling of carbon fiber reinforced plastics

Carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) composites are extremely attractive in the manufacturing of structural and functional components in the aircraft manufacturing field due to their outstanding properties, such as good fatigue resistance, high specific stiffness/strength, and good shock absorption. However, because of their inherent anisotropy, low interlamination strength, and abrasive characteristics, CFRP composites are considered difficult-to-cut materials and are prone to generating serious hole defects, such as delamination, tearing, and burrs. The advanced longitudinal–torsional coupled ultrasonic vibration assisted drilling (LTC-UAD) method has a potential application for drilling CFRP composites. At present, LTC-UAD is mainly adopted for drilling metal materials and rarely for CFRP. Therefore, this study analyzes the kinematic characteristics and the influence of feed rate on the drilling performance of LTC-UAD. Experimental results indicate that LTC-UAD can reduce the thrust force by 39% compared to conventional drilling. Furthermore, LTC-UAD can decrease the delamination and burr factors and improve the surface quality of the hole wall. Thus, LTC-UAD is an applicable process method for drilling components made with CFRP composites.

Influence of longitudinal-torsional ultrasonic-assisted vibration on micro-hole drilling Ti-6Al-4V

As Ti-6 Al-4 V is a typical hard to machine material,especially in micro drilling aviation parts,chip breaking difficulty is of increasing interest to explore its further development.In this study,Longitudinal-Torsional Ultrasonic Assisted Drilling(LTUAD)was employed to machine Ti-6 Al-4 V,and its feasibility was evaluated by comparing with Conventional Drilling(CD).By combining periodical characteristics and vibration models(the separated or the unseparated ultrasonic elliptical vibration),the influence of ultrasonic frequency on the intersection characteristics of trajectories were analyzed.And the intersection characteristics were divided into four categories:even periodicity,odd periodicity,non-odd and even periodicity and composite periodicity,indicating different capability for chip breaking.By applying the longitudinal-torsional compound vibration horn,the micro-hole drilling experiment was carried out on machining center.The chip morphology,the thrust force,and the burr height were discussed.Experimental results showed that the morphology of chips presented as smaller and more fragmentary ones in LTUAD compared with continuous helical conical ones and fold-shaped ones in CD.Compared with CD,the average values of the thrust force in LTUAD reduced by 1.98%to 24.9%.According to the burr around the hole exit in both LTUAD and CD,the height of the latter was greatly affected by the drilling parameters.And the burr around the exit of the hole were distributed rather evenly with smaller extension in LTUAD.Consequently,the LTUAD employed in micro-hole drilling was effective.

Research on ultrasonic-assisted drilling in micro-hole machining of the DD6 superalloy

The DD6 nickel-based superalloy exhibits remarkably high temperature properties;therefore,it is employed as a crucial structural material in the aviation industry.Nevertheless,this material is difficult to process.Ultrasonic-assisted drilling(UAD)combines the characteristics of vibration processing technology and conventional drilling technology,significantly improving the machinability of difficult-to-machine materials.Thus,UAD experiments were performed on micro-hole machining of DD6 superalloy in this study.The effects of amplitude,frequency,spindle speed,and feed rate on thrust force,machining quality,and drill bit wear were studied;thereafter,a comparison was drawn between these effects and those of conventional drilling(CD).The experimental results reveal that the thrust force decreases with an increase in spindle speed or a decrease in feed rate for both UAD and CD.UAD can significantly reduce the thrust force.With the same processing parameters,the greater the amplitude,the greater the reduction of the thrust force.The surface roughness of the hole wall produced by UAD is lower than that of CD.Compared with CD,UAD reduces the burr height,improves machining accuracy,and reduces drill bit wear.