Abstract
At the tool rake angle of γ, when the fibre orientation is beyond 90°+γ, chipping is mainly through bending-dominated fibre fracture in the machining of fibre-reinforced polymer (FRP) composites. This paper aims to develop a mechanics model to investigate the material removal in both traditional and elliptic vibration-assisted cutting of unidirectional FRPs when the fibre orientation is between 90°+γ and 180°. In the modelling, the cutting zone was characterized by a microstructure-based region and an equivalent homogeneous material region. Relevant experiments showed that the model has captured the major mechanics and material removal mechanisms and can predict the cutting force, fibre fracture and fibre-matrix debonding with acceptable accuracy.
