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Composites Science and Technology 92 (2014) 103111

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Composites Science and Technology

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

Elliptic vibration-assisted cutting of bre-reinforced polymer

composites: Understanding the material removal mechanisms
Weixing Xu a, L.C. Zhang a,, Yongbo Wu b
a
b

School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, The University of New South Wales, NSW 2052, Australia
Department of Machine Intelligence & Systems Engineering, Akita Prefectural University, 84-4 Tsuchiya-ebinokuchi, Yirihonjou, Akita 015-0055, Japan

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 18 October 2013
Received in revised form 4 December 2013
Accepted 9 December 2013
Available online 22 December 2013
Keywords:
A. Fibres
B. Fracture
B. Wear
C. Finite element analysis
Vibration-assisted cutting

a b s t r a c t
This paper develops an elliptic vibration-assisted (EVA) technique to effectively cut bre-reinforced polymer (FRP) composites using a simple tool. A novel vibrator was invented to work at the anti-resonant frequency to realize stable and high variational velocities. A three-dimensional microstructure-based nite
element model was also established to explore the material removal mechanisms in the EVA cutting. It
was found that the application of vibration can signicantly decrease the cutting forces and reduce the
subsurface damage in a workpiece. The vibration in the cutting direction is more effective in reducing
the cutting force, but that normal to the cutting direction has the advantage of chip removal. When
the vibration is applied to both the directions in the EVA cutting, an optimal cutting process can be
reached, providing much smaller cutting forces, a much improved surface integrity, and an extended tool
life. The study concluded that the ratio of the tool-feed-rate to the maximum vibration velocity in the cutting direction, and the ratio of the cutting distance in a single tool vibration cycle to the bre diameter are
the key parameters. To maximise the advantage of the EVA cutting, it is necessary that these two parameters are below their critical values.
2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Fibre-reinforced polymer (FRP) composites have been widely
used in industry due to their high strength and stiffness to weight
ratio. However, machining of FRP composite products is quite difcult, because of the signicant difference in mechanical properties of bres and matrix. As a result, a machined FRPs usually
contains various damages, such as bre pull-out, bre fracture, matrix cracking, brematrix debonding and delamination [14]. To
date, most experimental investigations on the machining of FRP
composites are on the following issues: effect of bre or matrix
types [5,6], inuence of bre volume fraction and orientations
[2,7], role of tool materials and geometries [810], contribution
of the depth of cut [11], and selection of processing parameters
[1214]. However, these studies are limited to traditional machining methods, such as turning, milling, drilling and grinding, and are
still facing the poor surface integrity problems highlighted above.
In order to reveal the machining mechanisms, corresponding theoretical analysis has also been carried out, using various modelling
methods [3,4,1519]. The nite element (FE) analysis has also been
conducted, of which some were based on the consideration of
equivalent homogenous materials [2023] and some others
Corresponding author. Tel.: +61 2 9385 6078.
E-mail address: liangchi.zhang@unsw.edu.au (L.C. Zhang).
0266-3538/$ - see front matter 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.compscitech.2013.12.011

involved the microstructures of FRP composites [2426]. Nevertheless, these are still insufcient to reect the real complex structure
of FRPs, especially in the understanding of the dynamic material
removal process in machining.
On the other hand, it has been a common understanding that
grinding is more appropriate for machining FRP composites
[2729], because in grinding the depth of cut of individual cutting
edges is usually smaller than the diameter of a bre [2]. However,
in many cases, grinding is often inefcient. This raises an important
question: Can a FRP composite be cut at a nominally large depth of
cut but with a small toolcomposite interaction to improve the
surface integrity while using a simple tool?
Vibration-assisted cutting may provide a satisfactory answer to
the above question, because this kind of cutting methods adds a
displacement of a micro-scale amplitude with an ultrasonic frequency to the tip motion of a cutting tool. The process effectiveness
has been experimentally evidenced by the machining of many single phase materials such as metals and ceramics [30,31]. The
advantage is that the ultrasonic vibration alters the tip trajectory
of a tool, which consequently makes the instant depth of cut much
smaller than a bre diameter. This may in turn improve the surface
integrity as pointed out by Zhang and Xu [2,32]. However, the
immediate challenge is as follows: (1) what vibration amplitude,
frequency and tool tip trajectory would be appropriate for a high
performance FRP cutting? (2) how can the material removal

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mechanisms be explored such that a deep understanding can be

achieved for optimising a cutting process?
The objective of this paper is to develop a vibration-assisted
technique for the effective cutting of FRPs and explore the material
removal mechanisms associated with the process. Both experimental and numerical methods will be employed to establish the
fundamentals.
2. Principle and modelling
2.1. Principle
A bre in an FRP composite is often made of a brittle material,
such as carbon and glass. To facilitate the breakage of such bres
in cutting the composite, an elliptic tool tip motion as illustrated
in Fig. 1a can be effective, because the tip motion, when properly
applied, can generate a local tensile stress in the bre. For convenience, this process is called an elliptic vibration-assisted (EVA)
cutting, of which the cutting tool feeds at a nominal feed rate, v,
while vibrates elliptically at an ultrasonic frequency and a micro
scale amplitude in the xz-plane. The feed rate is smaller than the
maximum vibration speed in x-direction, such that an intermittent
cutting [3335] is generated in each vibration cycle of the tool. In
each cycle, cutting takes place only when the tip wedges into the
workpiece, and hence a chip is mainly pulled up when the tool
moves upward in the chip ow direction. To facilitate the breakage
of the bres and matrix, the cutting distance within a cycle of the
tool vibration, D, is set to be smaller than the bre diameter, D.

Consequently, the surface quality can be improved as concluded

by Wang and Zhang [2] from a qualitative mechanics analysis.
2.2. Micro-scale modelling
To understand the material removal mechanisms in an EVA cutting, a 3D microstructure-based FE model (Fig. 1b) was established
by ABAQUS. The model was constructed with three layers: a microstructured layer, an equivalently homogeneous material (EHM)
layer and an innite elements layer. The microstructured layer
was in the middle of the model, whose thickness was set to be
the same as that of the cutting tool as shown in the gure. This
layer consisted of three phases of unique material properties, i.e.,
the bre, the matrix and the brematrix interface, and was
meshed by 8-noded brick elements. For the sake of computational
efciency but without losing the generality, the material layers
that sandwiched the microstructured layer were treated as an
EHM. To avoid the boundary effect, innite elements (CIN3D8)
were arranged around the control volume, except its front and
top surfaces. The material properties of the innite elements were
set to be the same as the EHM. The cutting tool was regarded as a
rigid body and its motion was supposed as follows:

xTool t a cos2pft

zTool t b cos2pft w

where a and b are the vibration amplitudes in x- and z-directions,

respectively; f is the vibration frequency; and w is the phase difference. The relative instantaneous cutting speed of the tool to the
workpiece is therefore

mx t 2pfa sin2pft m
v
Workpiece

Chip

Tool

b
a X

ap

Ellipticalvibration
Locus of
cutting edge

mz t 2pfb sin2pft w:

Based on the relative motion of the tool vibration to the feed

direction, there can be three types of vibration-assisted cutting:
(1) cutting-directional vibration-assisted (CDVA) cutting where
the tool vibrates in the cutting direction only (i.e., a 0 but
b = 0), (2) normal-directional vibration-assisted (NDVA) cutting
(i.e., a = 0 but b 0), and (3) EVA cutting (i.e., a 0 and b 0).

Matrix

3. The ultrasonic vibrator

3.1. The EVA cutting system

Fibre

(a)

Fibre

Matrix
Interface

Fig. 2 shows a schematic illustration of the EVA cutting system,

consisting of a vibrator to generate an elliptic high frequency vibration, a cutting tool, a support system and a power supply system.
The vibrator was designed by bonding four axis-symmetric distributed piezoelectric (PZT) actuators, denoted by A, B, C and D, on a
cylindrical body made of stainless steel SUS304. In order to realize
the ultrasonic vibrations in both cutting and vertical directions,

EHM
Generator
Amplifier
C

Metal elastic body

Tool
A

Y
X

Tool

FPZ

(b)
Fig. 1. Illustration of (a) EVA cutting of FRP composite and (b) its FE micro-scale
model.

Z
FPX

PZT actuator

Fig. 2. Illustration of EVA cutting system.

Y
X

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100

Mode1
Mode2

Antiresonance point

Cutting tool

Gain dB

80

60

40

Y
Z

Resonance point
Locus of
elliptic vibration

(a)

20
17.2

17.3

17.4

17.5

17.6

Frequency Hz

(b)

Fig. 3. Frequency responses by (a) FEM and (b) measurement.

four alternating current signals, VA, VB, VC and VD, were applied to
the PZT actuators, respectively. If their frequencies were set at
the same value of f and their amplitudes were Vp, then VA =
Vpsin(2pft), VB = Vpsin(2pft + p), VC = Vpsin(2pft + w) and VD =
Vpsin(2pft + w + p), where the phase shift between VA and VC was
w, that between VA and VB was p, and that between VC and VD
was p. When f is set to be the same as or close to the resonant
or anti-resonant frequencies of the third-bending-mode of the
assembled body (including the actuators, cylindrical body and cutting tool), the vibrator will vibrate in two modes simultaneously.
As a result, the tip of the cutting tool at the end of the vibrator will
vibrates elliptically. It should be mentioned that to obtain elliptic
vibrations in a exible range, the cylindrical body should be supported at the nodal points of its bending vibration modes. To better
balance the cutting force and improve the stiffness of the vibrator
during the cutting process, preloads of FPX in cutting direction and
FPZ in vertical direction were applied at the free end. In addition, a
wave function generator (WF1946B by NF Corporation) and its corresponding ampliers (HSA4052) were used as the power supply
to produce sinusoidal signals with the same frequencies and required phase shifts.
3.2. Performance of the vibrator
To determine the dimensional design of the ultrasonic vibrator,
FE analysis was carried out with the condition of fAB = fCD, where fAB
and fCD are the frequency of the third-bending-mode in the
xy-plane (Mode 1) and yz-plane (Mode 2) respectively. Fig. 3a
shows the results of the frequency response using a PZT device
analysis software (PIEZO by Dynus Co., Ltd.), under the condition
of Vp = 1 V, fAB = fCD = 17.38 kHz and w = 90. Clearly, an elliptic
motion occurred on the tip of the cutting tool. The vibrator was
then manufactured and Fig. 3b shows the resonant frequencies
measured by an impedance analyser (4294A by Agilent Co., Ltd.).
Obviously, the resonant frequencies of the Mode 1 and 2 were
17.386 kHz and 17.382 kHz, respectively. Therefore, the designed
vibrator has met the requirements.
Fig. 3a also shows that the impedances for the two modes
reached their maxima at 17.43 kHz, indicating that the power consumption would be the lowest when the voltages with these frequencies were applied. This is the anti-resonance phenomenon. It
has been a common understanding that in general a high power
is required to obtain high vibration velocities in vibration-assisted
machining. The vibrators in the current manufacturing practice are
mostly arranged to vibrate at the resonant frequencies, leading to a
big electric-mechanical loss, sharp temperature rise and unstable
velocities as sacrice [36]. In contrast, working at the anti-resonant

frequency can not only avoid these problems but also reach the
same high but more stable vibration velocity [33,3739]. The earlier works by the authors have proven that vibrating at the antiresonance frequency outstands that at the resonance frequency
under the high power condition [4043]. In this study, therefore,
the vibrator was set to vibrate at the anti-resonance frequency of
17.43 kHz. In addition, to keep the vibration characteristics unchanged under different cutting forces, preloads on the free end
of the vibrator were set as FPX = FPZ = 30 N according to [41,42,44].
To collect the vibration characteristics of the tool tip, a measuring system consisting of two laser Doppler vibrometers (LV-1610
by Ono Sokki) [44] was constructed. Fig. 4a shows the results under
Vp = 50 V and f = 17.43 kHz. Clearly, the cutting tool vibrates with
sinusoidal patterns along the cutting direction with a = 1.76 lm
and along the vertical direction with b = 1.45 lm when w = 90.
The synthesis of the two vibrations is a typical elliptic vibration
and the tool tip motion follows this pattern. The shape of the ellipse also varies with the change of the phase shift. For instance,
the elliptic pattern is nearly linear when w = 10 but becomes circular when w = 150. The inuence of the voltage amplitude Vp on
the vibration amplitude is shown in Fig. 4b. As can be seen, Vp signicantly affects the vibrations in both the cutting and vertical
directions. The amplitude a increases from 0.69 lm to 2.79 lm
and b increases from 0.55 lm to 2.31 lm linearly as Vp increases
from 10 V to 90 V. This shows an important fact that a and b can
be altered accurately by changing the value of Vp.
For the other types of vibration-assisted cutting, the actuators
A&B (Cases 1) and C&D (Cases 2) were excited separately and
Fig. 5 shows the vibration traces of the tool tip. The vibration
amplitudes were a = 1.95 lm and b = 0.12 lm in Case 1, and
a = 0.08 lm and b = 1.31 lm in Case 2. Since only one thirdbending-mode was excited by applying 180 phase shift voltages
to the parallel actuators, unidirectional vibrations in cutting direction (CDVA cutting) and vertical direction (NDVA cutting) were
generated in Cases 1 and 2, respectively. Consequently, they are
used for the following cutting experiments.
4. Setup and conditions for experimental and numerical
analyses
The workpieces used in the study were unidirectional carbon bre-reinforced polymer (CFRP). The conditions for the simulation
and experimental cutting tests are listed in Table 1. Previous
experiments [2] have shown that when cutting CFRP, both the bre
and matrix exhibit brittle fracture. In the present FE analysis,
therefore, the brittle cracking constitutive model in ABAQUS Explicit was used. Table 2 shows the properties used in the simulation.

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=90

=10
a

=50

Vibration
direction

1m
1s

1m

1m

=150

=90

=180

1m

1m

1m

(a)
3.5

Amplitude a
Amplitude b

Vibration amplitude m

3.0
2.5
2.0
1.5
1.0
0.5
0.0
0

20

40

60

80

100

Input voltage Vp V

(b)
Fig. 4. Inuence of (a) the phase shift and (b) the voltage amplitude on elliptic vibration.

Exciting PZT: A&B

Phase shift: 180

2m

Exciting PZT: C&D

Phase shift: 180

1m

Fig. 5. Actuator exciting methods and the locus of vibration on the tool tip.

A material separation took place in the bre, the matrix or the

interface when the maximum principal stress in that material exceeds its tensile strength. The separation direction (or cracking
direction) was governed by the principal stress direction. To avoid
the penetration of elements after separation, a penalty contact condition was applied to insure that the surfaces of each element in
the microstructured layer would not interact with the surfaces of
its surrounding elements. The material properties of the breepoxy interface were treated similarly to those of the epoxy matrix,
but with smaller tensile and shear stress thresholds to reect the
brematrix bonding strength. In addition, the friction factor

Table 1
Simulation and experimental conditions.
Tool and workpiece
Tool material
Tool clearance angle a ()
Tool rake angle c ()
Cutting edge radius re (lm)
Workpiece material
Fibre orientation h ()
Fibre diameter D (lm)
Fibre volume fraction Vf (%)

Cutting conditions
TiAlN/TiN coated tungsten carbide
7
5
2
Unidirectional CFRP
90
7
60

Input voltage frequency f (kHz)

Input voltage amplitude Vp (V)
Input voltage shift phase w ()
Preload in cutting direction FPX (N)
Preload in normal direction FPZ (N)
Depth of cut ap (lm)
Tool feed rate v (m/min
Coolant

17.43
2080
90
30
30
10150
0.315
None

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W. Xu et al. / Composites Science and Technology 92 (2014) 103111

Table 2
Material properties.
Material

Carbon bre
Epoxy
Interface
EHM

5. Results and discussion

q (kg/m3)

Yongs
modulus
E (GPa)

Poissons
ratio m

Tensile
strength
rt (MPa)

Shear
strength
rs (MPa)

1750
1220
1220
1530

230
3.2
3.2
135

0.2
0.35
0.35
0.318

2000
85
50

380
50
25

Density

107

In the FRP cutting process, the fracture of bres not only dominates the cutting force and plays an important role in the chip formation, but also determines the surface nish and subsurface
quality. As such, we will focus on the fracture of bres in our cutting analysis.

5.1. Chipping mechanisms and surface integrity

(1) Wave function generator

(2-5) Power amplifier
(6) AC singles display
(7) Force sensor amplifier
(8) Force display
(9) CNC surface grinder
(10) Worktable
(11) Vibrator
(12) Workpiece holder
(13) Force sensor
(14) Workpiece
(15) Cutting tool
Fig. 6. Experimental apparatus for the EVA cutting tests.

between the tool and workpiece was taken as 0.25 based on the
experimental measurements available [2].
In the cutting experiments, a micrograin grade TiAlN/TiN
coated tungsten carbide insert (rake angle 5 and clearance angle
7) was used as the cutting tool, and the workpieces (size:
80 mm  40 mm  3 mm) were prepared from a unidirectional
CFRP laminate plate. The experiments were carried out on a CNC
surface grinder (SGT-315RPA by Nagase Integrecs Co. Ltd.) as
shown in Fig. 6, and the cutting procedure was as follows.
Firstly the vibrator was loaded on the worktable and its position
was adjusted to make the cutting tool in parallel with the
CNC spindle. The workpiece was fastened on the spindle with its
surface to cut to be perpendicular to the cutting tool. No
coolant was used in all the experiments and the bres were
vertical to the cutting direction (i.e., h = 90). To measure the average cutting and vertical forces, a Kistler 3D dynamometer (9256A1,
with 5 kHz natural frequency) was mounted beneath the vibrator
[45,46].

Fig. 7 shows the bre fracture of the second bre under the cutting conditions of ap = 30 lm and v = 1 m/min. When the ultrasonic
vibration was applied, the frequency used was f = 17.43 kHz. With
the CDVA cutting mode, a = 2.07 lm and b = 0 lm; under the
NDVA cutting mode, a = 0 lm and b = 1.67 lm; and under the
EVA cutting mode, a = 2.07 lm and b = 1.67 lm.
Fig. 7a presents the bre fracture in the traditional cutting process. It is clear that the wedging of the cutting edge does not remove the fractured bres effectively, but pushes the broken bre
segments into the zone in front of the cutting edge. This leads to
obvious bre-bending ahead of the cutting zone, brings about severe damages to the neighbouring bres and the matrix material,
and causes the bres to crack even in the deep subsurface.
When a vibration is applied to the feeding direction, i.e., the
CDVA cutting mode shown in Fig. 7b, it can be seen that some
localised deformation zones appear, giving rise to certain smaller
bre fragments. The extent of the bre-bending is reduced, reected by the straightness of the bres. This is because of the following facts: (1) In the CDVA cutting mode, the maximum
vibration velocity in the cutting direction, 2pfa= 22.97 m/min, is
much larger than the tool feed rate, v = 1 m/min; and (2) the cutting distance in each vibration cycle, D = v/f = 0.96 lm, is much
smaller than the bre diameter D. As a result, the vibration breaks
a feed step down to many intermittent cutting actions. However,
bre fracture in the deep subsurface still occurs, caused by the
reciprocating motion of the cutting edge.
When a vibration is applied to the vertical direction, i.e., the
NDVA cutting mode in Fig. 7c, the bre facture becomes localised,
because the tool-bre friction caused by the vertical vibration motion of the cutting edge brings about additional tension and compression cycles in the bre, particularly at the bre-tool contact
surface. This role of such friction-induced tensioncompression is
twofold: (i) it facilitates the localised fracture of the bre by

Fig. 7. Fibre fracture in (a) traditional cutting, (b) CDVA cutting, (c) NDVA cutting and (d) EVA cutting. The colours indicate the levels of Von Mises stresses during the cutting.
(For interpretation of the references to colour in this gure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)

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Workpiece holder

Workpiece holder

CFRP

CFRP
Chips

Chips

Chips

Tool

Tool Chips

Feed direction

Feed direction

(a)

(b)

Workpiece holder

Workpiece holder

CFRP

CFRP

Chips
Tool

Chips

Chips

Tool Chips

Feed direction

Feed direction

(c)

(d)

Fig. 8. Some snapshots in (a) traditional cutting, (b) CDVA cutting, (c) NDVA cutting and (d) EVA cutting of CFRP composites. The insert at the right bottom of each image is
the chips collected.

Cutting direction

Cutting direction

(a)

(b)
Cutting direction

Cutting direction

(c)

(d)

Fig. 9. Surfaces of CFRP composites machined by (a) traditional cutting, (b) CDVA cutting, (c) NDVA cutting and (d) EVA cutting.

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W. Xu et al. / Composites Science and Technology 92 (2014) 103111

Normalized cutting force

2.0

Simulation: Fx
Simulation: Fz
Experiment: Fx
Experiment: Fz

1.6

1.2

0.8

0.4

0.0
Traditional

CDVA

NDVA

EVA

Cutting methods
Fig. 10. Cutting forces: FE predictions vs. experimentally measured results.

70

Fx: v chang
Fx: a chang
Fz: v chang
Fz: a chang

Cutting force N

60
50
40
30
20
10

0
0

10

20

30

40

50

Rate: 2fa/v

(a)
90

Traditional cutting Fx
Traditional cutting Fz
EVA cutting Fx
EVA cutting Fz

Cutting force N

75
60

30
=D

0.5

1.0

2fa=v

1.5

2.0

2.5

Rate: /D=v/fD
0

When an elliptical vibration is applied (Fig. 7d), the chipping

and breakage of the bre are much more localised in comparison
with the other cases. Due to the simultaneous motion of the tool
tip in both the cutting and vertical directions, stresses are concentrated in a very narrow region around the tip-bre interaction
zone. The bre is fractured into much smaller pieces, which has
largely improved the surface integrity of the nished surface.
Meanwhile, it can be clearly seen that the bres that are not in direct contact with the tool tip have a very low stress. The brebending observed in the previous three cases is avoided.
The experimental cutting processes were recorded by a high
speed camera. Fig. 8 shows some snapshots including the collected
chips for each method, which conrms the predicted results by the
FE analysis. Due to the continuous ploughing motion of the cutting
edge, a large quantity of chips appeared and accumulated in front
of the cutting tip in the traditional cutting. With the application of
the vibration, the chip size decreased and no chip accumulation occurred in front of the cutting tool. The EVA cutting produced the
smallest chips and they were always removed instantly. This is because the elliptical vibration made the moving direction and velocity of the tool tip change instantaneously (see Fig. 7d).
Fig. 9 shows the CFRP surfaces machined by the traditional and
vibration-assisted cutting methods. It can be seen that the traditional cutting pulled the bres out, and generated deep damages
to the subsurface, Fig. 9a. The chips were large brematrix clusters and the surfaces were rough (Ra = 5.18 lm). In contrast, the
vibration-assisted cutting improved the machined surface quality.
As shown in Fig. 9b, the CDVA cutting produced smoother surfaces
(Ra = 4.25 lm). However, due to the frequent reciprocating of the
tool along cutting direction, the surface bres and matrix were
debonded. The NDVA cutting further reduced the surface roughness to Ra = 2.72 lm, and apparently minimised the brematrix
debonding. A closer examination, nevertheless, revealed that the
debonding still took place and many bres were broken in the deep
subsurface such that they were easy to be pulled out, Fig. 9c. The
best results were by the EVA cutting, which not only made surface
much smoother (Ra = 1.32 lm), but also minimised the debonding,
leading to high surface integrity. The above experimental results
conrm the predictions from the FE analysis discussed above.
5.2. Cutting forces

45

15

109

12

16

20

Feed rate v m/min

(b)
Fig. 11. Inuence of (a) 2pfa/m and (b) D/D (feed rate) on cutting forces.

exerting an additional tensile stress to the bre because the vibration amplitude is very small; and (ii) it can cause the bre to debond or crack vertically because of the compression as shown by
the upsetting phenomenon of the rst bre (from the right) beneath the clearance surface of the tool. On the other hand, the vertical vibration does not change the horizontal wedging force of the
tool tip. As a result, the stresses in the bres ahead of the cutting
zone are greater than those under the CDVA mode.

Fig. 10 shows the variation of the average cutting forces from

both the FE predictions and experiments under the same conditions, where the force values were normalized by the ratio of the
cutting force to the shear force of bre rspD2/4 along a bre
matrix cell width. The results demonstrate that the traditional
cutting required the largest cutting forces, and the EVA cutting
consumed the smallest cutting energy. In the CDVA cutting, the
constraint conditions of the tool trajectory ensured the separate
shear of the bres and the matrix, so that both Fx and Fz became
smaller. In the NDVA cutting, the cutting forces dropped not as
much as that in the CDVA cutting, because the tool was always
in contact with the FRPs. The EVA cutting combined the merits of
the CDVA and NDVA methods. On one hand, the vibrations in both
the cutting and vertical directions incur the instantaneous changes
of the cutting angle to promote bre fracture [27]; on the other
hand, the instant chip removal due to the vertical vibration reduced the cutting forces further.
The two constraint conditions of the tool trajectory (v < 2pfa;
D = v/f < D) play a key role in the EVA cutting. Fig. 11a shows the
effect of 2pfa/v on Fx and Fz. Under the same condition of
f = 17.43 kHz, w = 90 and ap = 50 lm, v changed from 0.3 to
18 m/min with a = 1.76 lm, and a changed from 0.7 to 2.8 lm with
v = 0.5 m/min. In both sets of the results, the forces rst decrease
sharply until the ratio reaches 5. It is therefore clear that the EVA

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W. Xu et al. / Composites Science and Technology 92 (2014) 103111

Rake face

50m
50m

50m

Flank face

(a)

(b)

(c)

Fig. 12. Wear of the cutting tool. (a) before cutting; (b) after traditional cutting of 3.5 h and (c) after EVA cutting of 3.5 h.

cutting is effective with small cutting forces when 2pfa/v is above

5. Fig. 11b shows the inuence of feed rate v to the cutting forces,
where Vp = 60 V, f = 17.43 kHz, w = 90 and ap = 50 lm. All of the
force curves rise with the increase of v, and it is apparent that
the vibration of the cutting tool reduces both Fx and Fy. This effect
is signicant when D/D is less than 0.8.
5.3. Tool wear
Fig. 12 shows the geometries of the cutting tool before and after
the cutting of 3.5 h, using the traditional and EVA methods
(Vp = 60 V, f = 17.43 kHz, w = 90, ap = 80 lm, v = 2.0 m/min). Because bres were strongly abrasive, and the vertical cutting force
in vertical direction in traditional cutting was big (Fig. 10), the tool
suffered from signicant crater and ank wear. With EVA, however, due to the merit of small chips and cutting forces, the tool
wear is greatly improved. In general, the maximum ake wear land
size, VBmax, should be below 0.2 mm (tool wear threshold) [47].
Fig. 12b shows that VBmax has reached 0.22 mm after the cutting
of 3.5 h with the traditional cutting, indicating that this tool is no
longer useful. With the aid of the EVA, however, VBmax is only
0.1 mm, Fig. 12c. This is a signicant extension of the tool life.
6. Conclusions
This paper has explored the mechanisms of material removal
and subsurface damage in FRPs using a vibration-assisted cutting
technique. A novel vibrator has been invented to work at the
anti-resonant frequency to realize stable and high variational
velocities. A three-dimensional microstructure-based FE analysis
and a systematic EVA cutting experiment have been carried out.
The investigations lead to the following conclusions:
(1) The application of vibration can signicantly decrease the
cutting forces and reduce the subsurface damage in a CFRP
workpiece. The vibration in the cutting direction is more
effective in reducing the cutting force, but that normal to
the cutting direction has the advantage of chip removal.
(2) In the EVA cutting, i.e., when vibration is applied to both the
cutting and vertical directions, the chipping and breakage of
the bres are much more localised and thus the brebending is mostly avoided. An optimal cutting process can
be realised to provide much smaller cutting forces and a
much improved surface integrity.
(3) The ratio of the tool-feed-rate to the maximum vibration
velocity in the cutting direction, and the ratio of the cutting
distance in a single tool vibration cycle to the bre diameter

are the key parameters. To maximise the advantage of the

EVA cutting, it is necessary that these two parameters are
below their critical values.
(4) EVA is effective to extend the cutting tool life, by reducing
both the crater and ank wear.

Acknowledgements
The authors appreciate the Australian Research Council for its
nancial support. This work was supported by an award under
the Merit Allocation Scheme on the NCI National Facility.
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