Geometrical Simulation Model for Milling of Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) Composites

Abstract This paper proposes a geometrical 3D milling simulation algorithm for Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) milling. In this simulation model, milling tools are simplified into layers of circles while CFRP lami- nates are simplified into layers of Dexel lines, which can realize simulations for various complex milling conditions. Significant geometrical parameters, for ex- ample, cutting angle and cutting length, can be computed with high efficiency. With some geometry-related physical models, the machining results can be pre- dicted for the entire milling process. The effectiveness of this simulation model has been validated by the milling force prediction and the delamination pre- diction. The performance of this simulation model benefits industrial CFRP manufacturing and provides a new method for online or long-time-interval simulation of CFRP machining.