Composites Science and Technology 68 (2008) 3123–3127

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Composites Science and Technology

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/compscitech

A micro–macro combined approach using FEM for modelling of machining

of FRP composites: Cutting forces analysis
Ali Mkaddem *, Ibrahim Demirci, Mohamed El Mansori
LMPF-EA4106, CER/ENSAM, rue Saint Dominique B.P. 508, 51006 Châlons-en-Champagne, France

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Experimental investigation of machining is cost prohibitive. The number of parameters to control, the
Received 6 September 2007 exhaustive material characterisation and the time consuming procedure to determine the mechanical
Received in revised form 8 July 2008 responses like cutting forces restricts experimental studies. In this context, finite element analysis can
Accepted 14 July 2008
be a feasible tool for studying the various responses in machining. This paper presents an attempt to
Available online 23 July 2008
investigate orthogonal Machining of Unidirectional Glass Fibres Reinforced Plastics (UD-GFRP) using
Finite Element (FE) simulation. The simulation uses the Tsai-Hill theory to characterise failure in plane
Keywords:
stress conditions and orthotropic behaviour. The model incorporates adaptive mesh technique and den-
A. Polymer-matrix composites
B. EOHM
sity. The material is modelled as an Equivalent Orthotropic Homogeneous Material (EOHM). A simulation
C. Cutting forces scheme entailing fibre orientation, depth of cut and tool rake angle is constructed for investigating the
D. Machining cutting and thrust force developed during machining. The numerical results are compared to [Nayak D,
Bhatnagar N, Mahajan P. Machining studies of UD-FRP composites – part 1: effect of geometrical and pro-
cess parameters, Mach Sci Technol 2005;9:481–501; Nayak D, Bhatnagar N, Mahajan P. Machining stud-
ies of UD-FRP composites – part 2: finite element analysis, Mach Sci Technol 2005;9:503–528.].
Comparison indicates that the model provides satisfactory prediction of the cutting forces. The relations
between material properties, tool geometry and process parameters are discussed.
Ó 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
The recent developments of low-cost manufacturing process for
producing net-shape and more resistant components have opened
new opportunity for the use of fibre-reinforced polymer (FRP)
materials. Their exciting potentiality resides in their smaller
weight-to-strength ratio compared to conventional single-phase
materials and favourable directional properties. FRP materials have
attracted much attention due to their excellent mechanical and
thermal resistance. However, many obstacles complicate the man-
ufacturing of parts from these materials in spite of their interesting
properties in aeronautic and automotive sectors [1–8]. In particu-
lar, anisotropy, non-homogeneity, fibre orientation and nature
are the main causes of difficulty in obtaining net-shape compo-
nents [2,4,5]. The machining of FRP differs from that of metals in
many ways, whence numerous analytical and experimental inves-
tigations have been conducted to understand this process. Experi-
mental investigations are very expensive, however, and time
consuming. Analytical methods offer good estimation of results
such as cutting forces [1,3,6,7], yet sometimes they are very com-
plex and ignore many phenomena, e.g. wear, surface finish quality,
chip properties, etc. Koplev et al. [9,10] are among the first to
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +33 3 26699135; fax: +33 3 26699176.
E-mail address: ali.mkaddem@ensam.fr (A. Mkaddem).
investigate the cutting forces. They found that the cutting forces
are dependent on many parameters. Other experimental studies
[6,11–14] showed that fibre orientation and tool geometry are
among the main significant parameters that influence cutting
forces in FRP machining. FE simulation of FRP machining offers a
good opportunity to face the technical difficulties and the high cost
of experimental studies. FE simulations can accommodate, numer-
ically, many phenomena within the same model, and also they can
give insights on the mechanisms of the material removal itself.
Two types of models can be distinguished: (i) macro mechanical
models [13,15–17] in which the composite material is generally
modelled as an Equivalent Orthotropic Homogeneous Material
and, (ii) micro mechanical models [8,15,18,19] in which the fibres
are distinguished from the matrix and needs complex modelling of
the fibre-matrix interface. In general, micro-mechanical models of-
fer better estimations of cutting forces than macro-mechanical
models. The structural of unidirectional composite material has
periodic microstructure properties that vary in repetitive patterns
throughout the material. The use of EOHM allows for reasonable
prediction of the equivalent global properties of the work material,
e.g. cutting forces. On the other hand, macro-mechanical models
are restricted to the prediction of global responses which are gen-
erally approximate in nature. Micro-scale analysis globally provide
better accuracy of results than macro-scale ones but their develop-
ment requires many approximations and sometimes becomes

0266-3538/$ - see front matter Ó 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.compscitech.2008.07.009
3124 A. Mkaddem et al. / Composites Science and Technology 68 (2008) 3123–3127

complex due to the number of variables and hypothesis to con- E3; the shear modulus G12, G13, G23; the Poisson ratio m12, m13, m23.
sider. The ideal solution would thus seem to develop a combined Thus, the stress–strain compliance is given by the following
micro–macro model. This would offer in a same time better accu- equation:
racy of global responses and a capability to analyse the micro- 8 9 2 38 9
>
>
r11 >
>
D1111 D1122 D1133 0 0 0 >
>
e11 >
>
mechanical mechanisms such as chip formation and local damage. > > 7 > >
This paper is, therefore, an attempt to present a sample of a com-
>
>
>
>
r22 >
>
>
>
6D
6 1122 D2222 D2233 0 0 0 7> >
>
>
e22 >
>
>
>
> >
= 6 7<> >
bined micro–macro model. The model incorporates adaptive mesh
< r33 6 D1133 D2233 D3333 0 0 0 7 e33 =
¼6
6 0
7
technique and density to analyse FRP machining. The proposed >
>
> r >
12 >
> 6 0 0 D1212 0 0 7 7>> e12 >
>
>
> >
> 6 7>> >
model has the advantage of the compromise between the micro- >
>
>
>
>
> 4 0
r13 > 0 0 0 D1313 0 5 >
>
>
> e13 >
>
>
>
scale (use of adaptive mesh) and macro-scale (use of EOHM) : ; : ;
r23 0 0 0 0 0 D2323 e23
approaches for achieving a good agreement with the reality of
cutting. In this work, special focus was made on discussing the ð1Þ
sensitivity of cutting forces to fibre orientation, tool rake angle For the orthotropic material, the Dijkl components of the above ma-
and depth of cut. trix were given as:

 Dkkkkðk¼1;2;3Þ ¼ Ek ð1  mij mji Þði–j–kÞ w
2. Numerical modelling 

 Dkkllðk¼1;2;l¼2;3;k<lÞ ¼ Ek ðmlk þ mik mlk Þði–j–kÞ w ð2Þ

2.1. Hypothesis  Dklklðk¼1;2;l¼2;3;k<lÞ ¼ Gkl

The work material is considered orthotropic with one
homogeneous equivalent phase. The simulation is based on a dy-
namic-explicit analysis including density effect and adaptive mesh.
The friction at the interface between the tool and work material is
assumed a fibres orientation dependent parameter and modelled
using Coulomb criterion. The principle of slave-master pair
surfaces is considered. The stress-based criterion of Tsai-Hill is
retained for simulating the failure in such a manner that
r2 r2 r2
IF ¼ X112  r11Xr2 22 þ Y222 þ S12
2 < 1 where X is the stress limit in
the 1st-direction, and Y and Yc stress limit in the 2nd-direction, S
the in-plane shear strength in the X–Y plane and rijði¼1;2; j¼1;2Þ is
the stress tensor components.
2.2. Meshed model
The specimen was constructed with the same dimensions given
by Nayak et al. [14,15] and Bhatnagar et al. [13]. The mesh is con-
structed using specimen partition zones and plane stress elements
with three and four nodes. The model is fixed on the bottom side
whereas the tool is constrained in the 2nd-direction and lowered
to move against the work material in the 1st-direction, under an
imposed speed of 0.5 m min1 and a predefined depth of cut.
The full scale model includes a combination of CPS4 and CPS3
bilinear element types which agreed with the failure criterion re-
tained for simulation. Table 1 gives the machining parameters
and tool characteristics.
2.3. Material properties
where w ¼ 1=ð1  m12 m21  m23 m32  m31 m13  2m21 m32 m13 Þ is a con-
stant. The plane stress state imposes r33 ¼ 0, which reduces the
materials stiffness matrix in the analysis as required. Table 2 reca-
pitulates the mechanical characteristics used for simulation (see
Fig. 1).
3. Results and discussions
3.1. Cutting ratio
Fig. 2a illustrates the fracture modes and Fig. 2b shows the evo-
lution of cutting ratio R versus the fibres orientation. This parame-
ter is defined by R ¼ lc =dc , where lc and dc are, respectively, the chip
length and the cut distance covered by the tool. It is worth to note
that chip dimension varies with the fibres orientation in such a
manner that cutting ratio decreases when h increases. Numerous
observations have been performed in literature, e.g. Koplev et al.
[9,10] for characterising the formed chip during machining. The
whole of studies found that GFRP chips are generally discontinuous
with geometry depending on fibres orientations. When the orien-
tation h increases, the number of fibres subjected to cutting under
the rake angle of the tool increases and cut transversally. This im-
plies that cutting becomes increasingly hard and lead to small
chips. This can be explained by the fact that in this configuration,
the tool edge reaches the interface between the fibre and matrix
more rapidly than in the case of less orientation. Thus, once the
interface is reached, the damage propagates all the way of the fibre

The work material is composed of UD-GFRP composite. The Table 2

hypothesis of EOHM is considered. The elastic properties of the Mechanical properties retained for the EOHM model
material in tension are assumed different to the properties in com- Elastic modulus (GPa)
pression. Linear elasticity in an orthotropic material is easily de- E1 48.0
fined by giving the properties associated with the three E2 12.0
material’s principal directions: the modulus of elasticity E1, E2, E3 12.0
Shear modulus (GPa)
G12 6.0
G13 6.0
Table 1 G23 5.0
Geometry and process parameters Poisson ratio
m12 0.19
UD-GFRP m13 0.19
Fibres orientation (°) 0, 15, 30, 45, 60, 75, and 90 m23 0.26
Tool geometry: rigid body Tension, compression properties (MPa)
Rake angle c (°) 0, 10, 20, 30, and 40 Xt 550
Relief angle a (°) 6 Xc 400
Edge radius r (mm) 0.05 Yt 30
Process parameter Yc 64
Depth of cut ap (mm) 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, and 0.4 S 12.5
 A. Mkaddem et al. / Composites Science and Technology 68 (2008) 3123–3127
Fig. 1. Meshed model with partition zones and tool.
a b
Fracture mode: θ = 90°
apap
Cutting ratio R
Trim plane
Fracture mode: θ = 0°
Fig. 2. Cutting ratio vs. fibres orientation (c = 10° and ap = 0.2 mm).
contour within the matrix and then, failure occurs immediately
afterwards.
At the period of machining of an unidirectional FRP composite
with low fibres orientation, e.g. h  0 , chips generally formed with
a thickness close to the depth of cut (Fig. 2a) and sheared along to
the trim plane after being slightly deformed. In this case fracture
occurs far to the tool noise and the chip is produced with a length
relatively important. When the tool contacts the specimen, it cre-
ates a fracture in mode I that propagates along the trim plane for
positive rake angle. The dimension of the chip is influenced by
the propagation of the opening until fracture. Formation of chip
depends on the depth of cut. In this orientation, the chip is being
deformed under the action of the tool as a beam charged in a com-
pound constraint of bending and compression and the break will
initiate when the compression stress limit of the fibres is reached.
The difference between the matrix and fibre resistance leads to a
local and rapid instability on the active zone of machining. This re-
sults in fibre failure. The advance of the tool causes, at a critical
moment, rupture perpendicular to the direction of the fibres. The
process described reproduces in a cyclic manner until termination
of machining.
3.2. Cutting force – thrust force
3.2.1. Influence of the fibres orientation
This section presents the results of both cutting component and
thrust component of the force obtained by simulation compared to
3125
1.1
1 Cutting ratio
0.9
0.8
0.7
0.6
0.5
0.4 ap lc
0.3
0.2
0.1 dc
0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Fibres orientation (°)
those obtained experimentally. Fig. 3a illustrates the evolution of
cutting force, recorded at the start of machining, versus the fibres
orientation. It can be noted that the proposed model lead to better
values of Fc than those predicted by the model of Nayak et al.
[14,15]. Referring to the experimental curve, the mean error re-
corded for the present model is about 6% whereas it reaches 17%
for the model of Nayak et al. [14,15].
Introducing the density of the material has an important role in
quantifying the macroscopic responses during machining. This is
because the reaction of the material against the tool advance de-
pends on the material resistance. As obtained experimentally and
through simulations [15], the cutting force increases with the in-
crease of fibre orientation. Moreover, when the angle h increases,
the number of fibres which are likely to be cut increases. Conse-
quently, the action developed by the material for resisting to the
tool action increases as well. This explains the evolution of the cut-
ting force with fibre orientation. The force at 90° is about 2.65
times higher than the force at 0° for the proposed model. Experi-
mentally, we note that the obtained ratio is about 2.73.
Fig. 3b shows the thrust force values obtained by the proposed
model and plotted in the same graphic with the results of [15].
Experimental results show an increase of the thrust force until
an orientation of 45° after which, the force falls slightly for reach-
ing its minimum at 90° orientation. The typical evolution of exper-
iment seems to be in good concordance with the proposed model
contrary to the model of [15] which predicts a continuous increas-
ing force even if the orientation of fibres exceeds 45°. In addition, a
3126 A. Mkaddem et al. / Composites Science and Technology 68 (2008) 3123–3127

using the developed model in order to investigate the sensitivity

a 80 of the cutting forces to the depth of cut. Fig. 4 gives the evolution
70 γ of both cutting and thrust forces versus the depth of cut at 75° of
fibres orientation. It is worth noting that except for ap = 0.1 mm,
Cutting force Fc (N/mm)

Tool
60 Fc cutting force remains higher than thrust one. The forces seems to
α increase markedly with the depth of cut which is essentially due
50 to the cutting power required for separation of the chip which
Ft increases with the volume of material to remove. For high depth
40
of cut, the volume of fibres in the material to be cut is eventually
30 more important than for less depth of cut. Then, the material
develops higher reaction force face to the tool which leads to the
20 Proposed model increase of cutting power and consequently, the increase of the
Nayak et al. model [15] cutting forces. The cutting force (Fc) and the thrust force (Ft) be-
10 come, respectively, 3.3 and 2.3 times higher when the depth
Experiment [15]
0
of cut passes from 0.2 to 0.4 mm. When studying the sensitivity
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
of responses to the depth of cut variation for a rake tool angle of
5°, Bhatnagar et al. [13] have proved that cutting force increases
Fibres orientation (°) by a maximum of 1.8 times when the depth of cut varies from
0.1 to 0.3 mm, using a macro-mechanical model and material with
b 80 high strength limits, at 75° fibre orientation. It has been also indi-
Proposed model cated by Nayak et al. [15] that thrust force and cutting force are
70 Nayak et al. Model [15] very close at low depth of cut which is in good agreement with
Thrust force Ft (N/mm)

Experiment [15] experimental findings as suggested by the authors. Obviously,

60
the model may be enlarged for studying the force-depth of cut
50 dependence for all fibre orientations. This deals with an attempt
to show which parameter has the most influence on the final prop-
40 erty of machined components. It can thus be summarised that the
model using EOHM (macro-approach) and adaptive meshing tech-
30
nique (micro-approach) is able to predict the principal cutting
20
force with good degree of accuracy.

10 3.2.3. Influence of the rake angle of the tool

0 notable variation of cutting and thrust components. Fig. 5 gives the
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
Fibres orientation (°)
Fig. 3. Measured and predicted values of (a). Cutting force Fc and, (b). Thrust force Ft
(c = 10° and ap = 0.2mm).
marked error has to be noted between the Nayak et al. model and
experiment for orientation less than 45°. Referring to the experi-
ment, the mean error reaches 44% for Nayak et al. model whereas
it is only of 26% for the presented model. Al though the error
remains relatively high, the proposed model has lead to a marked
reduce of the prediction inaccuracy and offers better fitting of
the experiment particularly for fibres orientation greater than
45°. The fall of the force, observed beyond 45°, can be explained
by the bouncing back effect which takes place as a consequence
of the bending developed in particular in the fibres when they
are quasi parallel to the tool direction. In this case of small orien-
tations, cutting takes place in two steps: a bending of fibres start-
The analysis of forces versus the rake angle of the tool showed a
90 100 two associated curves. Although the plots vary in a similar manner,
Ft and Fc seem to be inversely proportional to the rake angle (con-
trary to their variations versus the depth of cut). When the rake an-
gle increases, the surface of contact between the tool rake face and
the volume of material to be cut, decreases, so, the force developed
at the contact surface decreases. Consequently, the force diagram
changes in such a manner that the mechanical actions generated
by the tool movement are reduced. The difference between the
cutting force and thrust one is more marked for rake angles bellow
20°. Beyond this value, the maximum variation which is observed
at 30° rake angle did not exceed 36% whereas it reached 62% at 10°
160
Cutting force Fc
140
Thrust force Ft
120
Force (N/mm)

100
ing when the tool touches the material simultaneously with
opening mode (mode I) and crushing that reached subsequently
80
and conduct to a failure with combined modes (mode I + mode
II). When h > 45 , the mode I being reached hardly contrary to 60
the mode II that occurred easily and starts as soon as the tool
comes into contact with the specimen, which releases the material 40
and explain coherently, in a hand, the fall of the thrust force and, in
20
an other hand, the continuous rise of the cutting force.
0
3.2.2. Influence of the depth of cut 0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3 0.35 0.4 0.45
In addition to the fibre orientation, the mechanical and geomet-
Depth of cut (mm)
rical quality of work-pieces depends on machining parameters
such as depth of cut and tool geometry. Runs were performed Fig. 4. Cutting force Fc and thrust force Ft vs. the depth of cut (c = 10° and h = 75).
 A. Mkaddem et al. / Composites Science and Technology 68 (2008) 3123–3127
160
Cutting force Fc
140
Thrust force Ft
120
Force (N/mm)
100
80
60
40
20
0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40
Rake angle of the tool (°)
Fig. 5. Cutting force Fc and thrust force Ft vs. the rake angle of the tool (ap = 0.2 mm
and h = 75°).
rake angle. The evolution of the cutting forces seems in good agree-
ment with experimental findings of literature [8,14,15].
The chip releases from the material with the thrust and cutting
components actions corresponding to the normal contact pressures
and tangential frictional shear, respectively. It has been found that
the chip length increases with the rake angle of the tool. For low
rake angles, the chip is compressed against the tool face which
leads to a large contact zone between the tool face and the re-
moved material and explain the high magnitude of the cutting
forces. For high rake angles, the chip being deformed and sheared
rapidly slides along the rake face and then released from the work
material. When the tool advances, material decohesion might ap-
pear engendering thus cracks that propagate within the machined
work-piece dependently to the fibres orientation. This phenome-
non is generally encountered for both low and high rake angle
but with different magnitude of damage extent. The sensitivity of
cutting forces to the rake angle is thus recorded.
4. Conclusions
The work consists in a contribution to construct numerical
model offering the opportunity for investigating the cutting forces
with a good degree of accuracy. The model, as detailed here, has
the originality of providing a compromise between micro-mechan-
ical and macro-mechanical analysis approaches. Thus, the
following points can be underlined:
 The investigation of the cutting ratio seems to be a useful
indicator for understanding mode of failure following damage
propagating. The geometry and dimensions of the formed chips
show dependency on the fibre orientation.
3127
 The developed model yields better prediction of cutting and
thrust forces under variable fibre orientation. Globally, the pre-
diction of the two components of the force, cutting and thrust,
satisfactory agree with previously published data.
 The model confirms the sensitivity of cutting forces to the depth
of cut as has been reported previously by experimental findings
of other authors. The cutting force as well as thrust force
increases with the increase of material volume to be removed
under the action of the tool.
 The analysis of the results showed also that the rake angle of the
tool markedly influenced the force components. Both compo-
nents are observed to decrease when the rake angle of the tool
increases.
45 References
[1] Everstine GC, Rogers TG. A theory of machining of fibre-reinforced materials. J
Compos Mater 1971;5:94–106.
[2] Konig W, Wulf Ch, Cra( P, Willerscheid H. Machining of fibre reinforced
plastics. CIRP 1985;34:537–47.
[3] Takeyama H, Iijima N. Machinability of glass fibre reinforced plastics and
applications of ultrasonic machining. CIRP 1988;37:93–6.
[4] Abrate S, Walton DA. Machining of composite materials. Part I: traditional
methods. Compos Manuf 1992;3:75–83.
[5] Komanduri R. Machining of fibre-reinforced composites. Mech Eng Trans ASME
1993;115:58–64.
[6] Bhatnagar N, Ramakrishnan N, Naik NK, Komanduri R. On the machining of
fibre reinforced plastics (FRP) composite laminates. Int J Mach Tools Manuf
1995;35:701–6.
[7] Pwu HY, Hocheng H. Chip formation model of cutting fibre-reinforced
plastics perpendicular to fibre axis. Trans ASME, J Manuf Sci Eng
1998;120:192–6.
[8] Arola D, Sultan MB, Ramulu M. Finite element modelling of edge
trimming fibre-reinforced plastics. Trans ASME, J Manuf Sci Eng
2002;124:32–41.
[9] Koplev A. Cutting of CFRP with single edge tools. Int Conf Compos Mater
1980;3:1597–605.
[10] Koplev A, Lystrup A, Vorm T. The cutting process, chips and cutting forces in
machining CFRP. Composites 1983;14:371–6.
[11] Sakuma K, Seto M. Tool wear in cutting glass fibre reinforced plastics. Bull
JSME 1983;26:1597–605.
[12] Spur G, Wunsh UE. Turning of fibre reinforced plastics. Manuf Rev
1988;1:124–9.
[13] Bhatnagar N, Nayak D, Singh I, Chouhan H, Mahajan P. Determination of
machining-induced damage characteristics of fibre reinforced plastic
composite laminates. Mater Manuf Process 2004;19:1009–23.
[14] Nayak D, Bhatnagar N, Mahajan P. Machining studies of UD-FRP composites –
part 1: effect of geometrical and process parameters. Mach Sci Technol
2005;9:481–501.
[15] Nayak D, Bhatnagar N, Mahajan P. Machining studies of UD-FRP composites –
part 2: finite element analysis. Mach Sci Technol 2005;9:503–28.
[16] Arola D, Ramulu M. Orthogonal cutting of fibre-reinforced composites: a finite
element analysis. Int J Mech Sci 1997;39:597–613.
[17] Mahdi M, Zhang L. A finite element model for the orthogonal cutting of
fibre-reinforced composite materials. J Mater Process Technol
2001;113:373–7.
[18] Mahdi M, Zhang L. An adaptive three dimensional finite element algorithm for
the orthogonal cutting of composite materials. J Mater Process Technol
2001;113:368–72.
[19] Venu Gopala Rao G, Mahajan P, Bhatnagar N. Micro-mechanical modelling of
machining of FRP composites – cutting force analysis. Compos Sci Technol
2007;67:579–93.