Optimization of machining parameters in drilling hemp fiber reinforced composites to maximize the tensile strength using design experiments

Abstract

<span style="font-size: 9.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt;letter-spacing:.2pt;mso-bidi-font-style:italic" lang="EN-US">Natural fiber composites today are replacing synthetic fiber composites due to superior properties of natural fibers such as low density, high specific strength and modulus, relative nonabrasiveness, ease of fiber surface modification and wide availability. Drilling is often required to facilitate the assembly of the parts to get the final product. However, drilling composite materials present a number of problems such as delamination associated with the characteristics of the material and with the used cutting parameters. The present investigation is an attempt to study the factors and combination of factors that influence the delamination and the tensile strength of the drilled unidirectional hemp fiber reinforced composites using Taguchi and ANOVA analysis and to achieve the conditions for minimum delamination and for maximum tensile strength. The result shows that<span style="font-size:9.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;mso-fareast-font-family:" ms="" pgothic""="" lang="EN-US"> <span style="font-size:9.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt;letter-spacing:.2pt; mso-bidi-font-style:italic" lang="EN-US">the feed rate and cutting speed are seen to make the largest contribution to the delamination and tensile strength. Confirmation experiments are conducted to verify the predicted optimal parameters with the experimental results.

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