Rotary ultrasonic assisted machining of aramid fiber–reinforced polymer composite: a numerical and experimental investigation using various cutting tools

Aramid fiber–reinforced polymer composite (AFRPC) is popular in aerospace and defense industries owing to its superior thermal and mechanical properties. However, its intricate hexagonal cellular structure and the material’s heterogeneous, soft, and brittle characteristics lead to significant surface defects, such as burr formation, wall tearing, roughness, dimensional inaccuracies, and uncut fibers during traditional machining. Such poor machining quality issues notably affect the operational lifespan and functional performance of its sandwich structural components. To address these issues, the rotary ultrasonic assisted machining (RUSAM) process has been introduced. To thoroughly investigate the RUSAM of AFRPC using various cutting tools, a 3D finite element model was developed and validated. This paper mainly investigates the effect of various machining parameters such as vibration amplitude (VA), cutting width (CW), feed rate (FR), and spindle speed (SS) on the cutting force, surface morphology, burr formation, and burr height during RUSAM of AFRPC structure by plane and toothed disc cutters. The burr height was found to decrease with the increase of spindle speed (60.82% and 71.00%) and vibration amplitude (78.15% and 82.32%), whereas increase with cutting width ( \(149.81\%\) $149.81\%$ and 321.16%) and feed rate (156.53% and 314.83%) during RUSAM by plane and toothed disc cutters, respectively. The pattern of variation of burr height with machining parameters was found similar to that of the cutting force. Significance analysis based on 4 levels, 4 factors orthogonal \({L}_{16}\) $L_{16}$ ( \({4}^{4}\) $4^4$ ) experiments revealed the cutting width to be the most influential parameter on the burr height and cutting force followed by the spindle speed, feed rate, and vibration amplitude during RUSAM of the AFRPC core by the disc cutters. Up to \(62.54\%\) $62.54\%$ reduction in burr height was realized by rotary ultrasonic assisted machining compared to the conventional machining. Under specified operating conditions, the disc cutter generates a higher but less number of burr as compared to the toothed disc cutter without any tearing defects. 3–10% and 5–20% burrs were observed during rotary ultrasonic assisted machining compared to 20–50% and 40–70% burrs during conventional machining of AFRPC structure by plane and toothed disc cutters, respectively. This experimental research will be extremely useful to comprehend the burr formation mechanism and optimize the machining parameters for enhanced surface morphology of AFRPC structures.