Experimental analysis and optimization of machining parameters for natural fiber reinforced plastics

Abstract

In recent years, the use of natural fibers as reinforcements in the manufacture of fiber newlinereinforced plastic composites has been of great interest to many researchers. These fibers newlinehave many advantages such as high specific strength and modulus, low density, relative newlinenon-abrasiveness, ease of fiber surface modification, better impact characteristics and newlinewide availability. Natural fibers also play an important role in developing biodegradable newlinecomposites to resolve the current ecological and environmental problems. Even though newlinenear-net shape manufacturing of natural fiber reinforced composite structures is possible, newlinemachining is an unavoidable process because manufacturing of the whole structures by a newlinesingle moulding process may not be practicable in most cases. newlineDrilling is a frequently practiced machining process in industry owing to the need for newlinecomponent assembly in mechanical pieces and structures. However, drilling composite newlinematerials presents a number of problems such as fiber peel up delaminations, fiber newlinepush down delaminations and matrix burning around the hole and ultimately newlinedecreases the strength of the component with drilled holes. In case of milling these newlinematerials also presents a number of problems, such as delaminations around the newlinemilled surfaces and surface roughness variations associated with the characteristics of newlinethe material and the cutting parameters. The damage generated during the machining newlineof composites can be detrimental to the mechanical behavior of the natural fiber newlinereinforced composite products. The resulting damage and reduction of product s life newlinedue to machining induced damage call for the collective responsibility of all the newlinemanufacturing specialists to address this inherent problem in a more scientific way newlinefor the benefit of the natural fiber reinforced plastic composites users. newlineviii newlineIn order to keep the damages as low as possible, a study is presented with the newlineobjective of optimizing the machining parameters (cutting velocity and feed rate) and newlinethe influence of the natural fibers unde