Analysis of Stresses in CFRP Composite Plates Drilled with Conventional and Abrasive Water Jet Machining

The aim of this paper is to analyze the influence of two machining processes on the mechanical behaviour of composite plates under cyclic loading. For this purpose, an experimental study using several CFRP plates drilled with conventional machining and non-conventional machining (abrasive water jet) was carried out. Digital image correlation and static tests using an Instron 4206 tester were performed. In addition, infrared thermography (IR) and fatigue tests were also performed to assess temperature and damage evolutions and also the stiffness degradation. Fatigue results have shown that the damage accumulation in specimens drilled with conventional machining was higher than the abrasive water jet ones. Furthermore, the endurance limit for plates drilled conventionally was approximately 10% higher than those drilled with abrasive water jet. This difference was related to the initial surface integrity after machining induced by the difference in the mechanism of material's removal between the two processes. The difference in surface texture was responsible for the initiation of stress concentration sites as evident from IR camera’s stress analysis. This was confirmed by SEM tests conducted after a destructive sectioning of the specimens before fatigue testing.