Original Article

Proc IMechE Part B:

J Engineering Manufacture
1–13
Modelling of thrust force for worn drill Ó IMechE 2017
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DOI: 10.1177/0954405416682791

in drilling carbon fibre–reinforced plastic/ journals.sagepub.com/home/pib

Ti-6Al-4V alloy stacks

Bin Luo1, Kaifu Zhang1, Yuan Li1, Hui Cheng1 and Shunuan Liu2

Abstract
Wear rates are rapid when drilling carbon fibre–reinforced plastics/Ti-6Al-4V alloy stacks because of their distinct
mechanical properties. Tool wear leads to a high thrust force, thereby reducing the quality of the drilled holes. This arti-
cle develops a novel mechanistic model for carbon fibre–reinforced plastics/Ti-6Al-4V stacks, which is characterised by
the cutting edge radius, to predict the variation of the thrust force when drilling with worn drill bits. Drilling experiments
with varying feed rates were performed using carbide twist drill bits. The thrust force and drill edge profile were mea-
sured to calibrate and validate the presented model. The edge radius increases with both the cutting distance and num-
ber of drilled holes at varying feed rates. It was found that the growth rate of the edge radius increased with the feed
rate with identical cutting distances, whereas it decreased slightly with the feed rate when the number of drilled holes
was identical. Tool wear reduces the equivalent rake angle of the drill edge, resulting in higher thrust force. The maxi-
mum thrust force increases almost linearly with the edge radius of worn drills for both materials. The predicted thrust
force curves are in very good agreement with the measured curves during the entire process. Average absolute errors
of the maximum thrust force for carbon fibre–reinforced plastics and Ti-6Al-4V alloy are 3.24% and 1.88%, respectively.

Keywords
Composite/metal stacks, drilling, tool wear, thrust force, modelling, feed rate

Date received: 21 October 2015; accepted: 31 October 2016

Introduction related to the thrust force during drilling composite

Thrust force is a key parameter in drilling because it
directly affects the quality of a hole. It is influenced by
both the cutting parameters and the geometry of the
drill bit. The feed rate, drill point, and cutting speed are
significant parameters that affect the quality of a hole
when drilling titanium alloys, aluminium alloys, and
engineering plastics.1,2 To estimate the hole’s defects
such as burr, diameter tolerance, and surface rough-
ness, data mining and artificial neural networks have
been employed for Ti-6Al-4V alloys and Al 7075-T6.3,4
Typically, thrust force is used to establish prediction
models for burr and delamination when drilling metals
or composite materials. Previously, a burr formation
model was developed to predict burr height according
to the thrust force distributed along the material in
front of the drill.5 To predict burr type, an analytical
model based on slip-planes theory was proposed in
which the thrust force was a crucial input parameter.6
Additionally, the size of the delamination zone is
laminates.7,8 The first model to determine the critical
thrust force, below which no delamination occurs, was
developed using a fracture mechanics approach.9 When
the thrust force was over a critical value, an approxi-
mate positive linear correlation between delamination
and thrust force was observed.10 Subsequently, the
model was extended to analyse the delamination caused
by a worn twist drill11 and special drill bits.12 During
drilling the metal/metal stack, interlayer burr size
increases with the growth of the gap, which is induced
1
Key Laboratory of Contemporary Design and Integrated Manufacturing
Technology, Ministry of Education, Northwestern Polytechnical
University, Xi’an, China
2
Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an, China
Corresponding author:
Kaifu Zhang, Key Laboratory of Contemporary Design and Integrated
Manufacturing Technology, Ministry of Education, Northwestern
Polytechnical University, Xi’an 710072, China.
Email: zhangkf@nwpu.edu.cn
2 Proc IMechE Part B: J Engineering Manufacture
by the interlayer thrust force.13 Collectively, these
results imply that modelling thrust force is a decisive
step towards controlling the occurrence of defects when
drilling monolayer and multilayer structures.
Carbon fibre–reinforced plastics (CFRPs) have been
employed broadly in the aeronautical industry because
of their high strength-to-weight ratio, high stiffness-to-
weight ratio, and high corrosion resistance.14 By
comparison, Ti-6Al-4V alloy has a higher corrosion
resistance and strength than CFRPs, but it has a lower
strength-to-weight ratio. Hybrid structures of CFRPs
and titanium stacks provide enhanced material proper-
ties, which have been increasingly employed because of
fuel efficiency and lifecycle requirements.15,16 Fastener
holes must be drilled through composite/titanium
stacks instead of drilling through each layer separately
to minimise positional errors and to obtain tight toler-
ances during assembly processes.17 A hole diameter of
6.38 6 0.04 mm is the typical tolerance for aerospace
applications,18 and the tolerance grade for aeronautical
applications is approximately IT6-IT8.19 Different
mechanical and thermal properties for the two materi-
als in CFRP/Ti-6Al-4V stacks result in rapid tool wear
during the drilling process.20 High speed cutting could
reduce the delamination damage with increased mate-
rial removal,21,22 although tool wear enlarges the dela-
mination areas when drilling composite laminates.23 A
strong correlation between tool wear and thrust force
has demonstrated the potential use of force measure-
ments for real-time assessments of tool wear when drill-
ing metals or composite materials.24,25 Tool wear
results in a significant increase in thrust force when
drilling metallic–composite stacks;20 thus, it is not
neglected when predicting the thrust force. In this
regard, it is desirable to understand and model the
effect of tool wear on thrust force in CFRP/Ti-6Al-4V
stacks.
In metal machining, tool wear is commonly charac-
terised by the average flank wear width. In drilling tita-
nium alloys, flank wear increases because of increasing
the feed rate and the thrust force.26 A large helix angle
could assist in slowing tool wear,27 and drill materials
with higher hardness and higher density are more wear
resistant.28 However, the flank wear criterion is not rel-
evant when machining CFRPs. Indeed, the primary
wear type when drilling composites is referred to as
edge wear because the build-up edge on the rake face
does not exist as a result of the brittle nature of
CFRPs.29 A new wear characteristic, named cutting
edge rounding (CER), has been proposed as a measure
of drill bit bluntness when drilling CFRPs instead of
the flank wear width.30 Comparison of edge rounding
wear when drilling CFRP/Ti-6Al-4V stacks with that
in drilling CFRP-only and titanium-only indicated that
tool wear primarily came from the CFRPs.31 Carbide
drills have high chemical affinity to titanium but low
chemical affinity to CFRPs. Therefore, adhesion of
titanium and abrasion by carbon fibres were identified
as the dominant wear mechanisms when drilling
CFRP/Ti-6Al-4V stacks.32 The experimental results
showed that wear progressed almost equally on the
rake and flank faces at low spindle speeds, resulting in
a round cutting edge.
Some efforts have been devoted to modelling the
effect of tool wear on the thrust force for both metals
and composites. An empirical formula between the
average thrust force and flank wear was established
through statistical analysis of experimental data.33 A
phenomenological model of axial load was extended to
consider the tool wear represented by the cutting edge
acuity for the CFRP drilling process.34 Additionally, a
multiple regression model was proposed to correlate
thrust force with tool wear represented by wear mass
when drilling fibre-reinforced composites.35 A linear
relationship was found between the thrust force and
wear mass, with a slope of 12.8.
The models mentioned above focus on predicting
the maximum thrust force of worn drill bits when drill-
ing single-layer plates. This article aims to develop a
novel mechanistic model for worn drills that can pre-
dict the variation of thrust force with machining time
when drilling CFRP/Ti-6Al-4V stacks. The round edge
radius was chosen as the wear criterion because of its
capacity to accurately reflect the change in geometry of
drill edges compared with the flank wear width or wear
mass. The development of such a mechanistic model
contributes to the prediction of varying thrust forces of
worn drills for multilayer structures. Moreover, this
research will assist in understanding the influence of
tool wear better and in determining when to change the
tool to avoid machining defects in composite/metal
stacks.
This article develops a mechanistic model to predict
the variation of thrust force with machining time for
worn drill bits with round edge when drilling composite
stacks. Subsequently, the experimental thrust force and
edge radius were used to evaluate the proposed model.
Finally, the influences of drill parameters on the edge
radius and thrust force were discussed in the context of
the proposed model.
Model derivation
Cutting angles along drill edges
The cutting edges of twist drills are mainly composed
of the chisel edge and cutting lips. Five parameters are
employed to define the geometrical features of the cut-
ting edges, including the point angle (2p), helix angle
(u), web thickness (2v), chisel angle (c), and radius of
the chisel edge (Rch). Cutting angles such as the rake
angle, relief angle, and inclination angle for a fresh drill
bit vary along the drill edges with radius distance (r).
Notably, these angles mainly determine the cutting
forces. The drill edges become gradually rounded when
drilling CFRP/Ti-6Al-4V stacks. The radius of the
rounded edge, defined as the edge radius (rb), is pro-
posed to quantitatively describe the worn drill
Luo et al. 3

The wedge angle (b) describes the rake face angle

relative to the relief angle (Figure 1) and can be written
as equation (6)
p
b= ag ð6Þ
2
The cutting lip geometry and its cutting angles are
shown in Figure 2. The geometrical parameters used to
calculate cutting angles are listed in section ‘Tool,
workpiece, and equipment’. As observed from Figure 2,
the rake angle varies from negative to positive values,
whereas the relief angle decreases until it equals the ref-
erence value a0. The wedge angle decreases as the
radius distance (r) increases, while the cutting angles
along the chisel edge remain constant.

Edge radius of the worn drill

Figure 1. Geometry of a worn drill edge. According to Archard’s model, the volumetric wear of
a drill bit is proportional to the cutting distance and
contact force. The volumetric wear of element M,
geometry. The geometry of a worn drill edge is shown whose radius distance is r as shown in Figure 1, can be
in Figure 1. Element M is an arbitrary point on the drill calculated using equation (7)34
edge, whose radius distance is r.
The rake angle (g) is the representative angle used to dV = kw sdF ð7Þ
describe the orientation of the rake face. The rake angle
where kw is the wear coefficient, dF is the contact force,
on the chisel edge is shown in equation (1)36
and s is the cutting distance.
g =  arctan ( tan (p) tan (u)) ð1Þ The cutting speed in the feed direction is negligible
compared with the rotational speed during the drilling
In contrast, the rake angle on the cutting lip is process. Thus, the cutting distance of element M can be
expressed in equation (2) expressed as equation (8)
  2prh
r cos (u) s= ð8Þ
g = arctan f
R sin (p)  v cos (p) tan (u)
  ð2Þ
sin (u) cos (p) where h is the drilled depth.
 arctan
cos(u) As shown in Figure 1, the worn part area equals the
AOBP area minus AOB. The AOBP area equals double
where R is the drill radius and u is the web angle the area of the right triangle PAO or PBO. The volume
defined by equation (3) dV equals the production of the wear area and the cut-
v ting element width (dl), as shown in equation (9)
u = arcsin ð3Þ    
r b b p 2
dV = cot +  r dl ð9Þ
The relief (or clearance) angle (a) describes the orien- 2 2 2 b
tation of the relief face. The relief angle on the chisel The cutting element width M is expressed in equa-
edge is expressed in equation (4)37 tion (10) as31
 
p tan (p)  sin (c)  sin (p) cos (i)
a =  arctan ð4Þ dl = dr ð10Þ
2 sin (p) + sin (p)  cos (c) sin (p)
In contrast, the relief angle on the cutting lip is where p is half of the point angle and i is the inclination
expressed in equation (5) angle, which can be expressed in equation (11)31
  
tan (u)  tan (uR ) tan (a0 ) i = arcsin ( sin (u) sin (p)) ð11Þ
a = arctan + cos (u)
tan (p) cos (uR )
Combining equations (7) and (9) gives the equation
ð5Þ to calculate the edge radius (equation (12)
sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
where a0 is the reference relief angle defined at the out-
kw sdF
ermost point on the cutting lip and uR is the web angle rb = ð12Þ
at radius distance R. ( cot (b=2) + b=2  p=2)dl
4 Proc IMechE Part B: J Engineering Manufacture
Figure 2. Cutting lip of drill bits (a) Cutting angles. (b) Geometry.
Figure 3. Contact length in the feed direction of the cutting
elements at : (a) r = Rch, (b) r = R.
The geometries of the cutting elements at r = Rch
and r = R on the cutting lips are shown in Figure 3.
For cutting elements with varying rake angles, the con-
tact lengths in the feed direction (hc) are different,
although they have the same edge radius. The effective
contact rate (kef) is defined in equation (13) as the ratio
of the contact length hc to the edge radius
hc
kef = = 1 + sin g
rb
Thrust force on worn edges
As a drill bit rotates around and feeds along the drill
axis, material is removed primarily by the two cutting
lips. Cutting forces consist of the force acting on the
rake face and the force acting on the cutting edges.38 In
addition to the shearing process, a second mechanism,
termed the ploughing process, plays an important role
as material is removed with a rounded edge. The mate-
rial before the rake face is sheared forming chips during
the shearing process, whereas the material around the
cutting edge is deformed elastically and plastically in
the ploughing process. Accordingly, the cutting forces
Figure 4. Cutting forces acting on a cutting element with a
round edge.38
of a worn drill consist of a shearing force (Fsh) and a
ploughing force (Fpl). Figure 4 illustrates the cutting
forces acting on a cutting element of a worn drill.
It is assumed that each point on the drill edge cuts
orthogonally. The total force F is decomposed into two
mutually perpendicular forces. One force cuts in a
direction termed as Fc, and the other force is in the feed
ð13Þ direction and is termed as Ff. The feed force (Ff) equals
the sum of the shearing force in the feed direction
(dFsh,f) and the ploughing force in the feed direction
(dFpl,f). Additionally, the feed force can be resolved
into two components in the perpendicular and parallel
directions to the drill axis. The parallel components are
summed for all elements of the cutting edges to obtain
the thrust force (T), as shown in equation (14)
ð
T = 2 sin (p) (dFsh, f + dFpl, f ) ð14Þ
For each cutting element, the shearing force in
the feed direction is assumed to be proportional to
the uncut chip area (dAc), which can be expressed as
equation (15)
Luo et al. 5

dFsh, f = kc dAc = 0:5kc f cos (i)dr ð15Þ

where f is the feed rate (mm/rev) and kc is the specific

cutting pressure. Since the cutting velocity has little
effect on the thrust force, the specific cutting pressure
depends mostly on the uncut chip thickness (tc) and
rake angle (g). The feed rate is proportional to the
uncut chip thickness during the drilling process. Thus,
the specific cutting pressure (kc) can be expressed as
equation (16)

kc = (kc1 (1  sin (g)) + kc2 )f a ð16Þ

where kc1, kc2, and a are coefficients of the specific cut-

ting pressure, which must be calibrated experimentally.
Fitting results have shown that the ploughing force Figure 5. Stages of the drilling process of CFRP/Ti-6Al-4V
in the feed direction has a linear relationship with stacks.
the edge radius.38 Accordingly, the elementary
ploughing force in the feed direction can be expressed 8 Ð
as equation (17) >
> Gca = sin (p) Ð (1  sin (g)) cos i  dr
<
Ð cos (i)  dr
Gcb = sin (p)
ð20Þ
dFpl, f = (Ab kef rb + Bb )dl ð17Þ >
> G = 2A b Ð kb (1 + sin (g)) cos (i)  dr
: pa
Gpb = 2Bb cos (i)  dr
where kef is the effective contact rate defined in equa-
tion (13) and Ab and Bb are coefficients that must be The drilling process of CFRP/Ti-6Al-4V stacks can
calibrated experimentally. be divided into three stages according to the contact
In the drilling process, the cutting speed increases material of the drill edges, as shown in Figure 5. The
with radius distance, whereas the cutting force drill edges cut CFRP or Ti-6Al-4V alloy only in the
decreases with an increase in radius distance because of CFRP or titanium regions, whereas they cut CFRP
increases in the rake angle.37 Thus, the variation of the and Ti-6Al-4V alloy simultaneously in the interface
cutting temperature along the drill edge is not as signif- region. The cutting forces in the interface region can be
icant as the cutting speed. Experimental results show obtained by summing all elementary forces acting on
that the temperature profiles are nearly insensitive dur- CFRP and Ti-6Al-4V alloy. The thrust force at time t
ing drilling.39 Therefore, the drill edge cutting tempera- in the interface region can then be expressed as equa-
tures can be assumed to be uniform. Since the cutting tion (21)
temperature and properties of a workpiece material are
similar, the entire drill edge experiences a similar wear ðR ð
r(t)

process. The wear coefficient described in equation (7)
depends on the temperature and material properties of
the tool–workpiece transition zone. Thus, the wear
coefficient is constant along the entire drill edge. Edge
radius along drill edge can be obtained if the value at
the drill’s periphery (rb0) is known. By substituting
equations (8) and (15) into equation (12), the ratio of
the edge radius to its value at the periphery can be
expressed as equation (18)
sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
rb ( cot (b0 =2) + (b0 =2)  (p=2))rkc
kb = = ð18Þ
rb0 ( cot (b=2) + (b=2)  (p=2))Rkc0
where b0 and kc0 are the values at the periphery.
Substituting equations (13), (15), (17), and (18) into
equation (14) and rearranging allows the thrust force to
be written as equation (19)
T = (Gca kc1 + Gcb kc2 )f 1a + Gpa rb0 + Gpb ð19Þ
where Gca, Gcb, Gpa, and Gpb are the integral terms given
in equation (20)
T= dTCFRP + dTTi ð21Þ
r(t) 0
where r(t) is the maximum radius distance in the Ti-
6Al-4V alloy at time t. The limit of integration r(t) is
associated with the drill geometry and the cutting con-
ditions, as shown in equation (22)
rffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
 t 2
r(t) = v2 + Rch cos (c) + nf tan (p)  ð22Þ
60
where n is the spindle speed (rev/min).
To clearly show the steps to derive the model, a
flowchart is presented in Figure 6. First, the cutting
edges of the worn drill are divided into the cutting ele-
ments whose cutting angles and edge radii are mathe-
matically described. Then, the shearing and ploughing
forces acting on the cutting elements are calculated
using coefficients calibrated from experimental data
(Table 3). Finally, the variation of the thrust force for
the worn drill is obtained by summing the forces on all
of the cutting elements.
6 Proc IMechE Part B: J Engineering Manufacture
Table 1. Material properties of CFRP.
Hardness of fibre Strength weight ratio Tensile strength
418 Hv 483.7 N m/g 774 MPa
Table 2. Material properties of Ti-6Al-4V alloy.
Hardness Strength weight ratio Tensile strength
349 Hv 202.2 N m/g 896 MPa
Figure 6. Flowchart of the model derivation.
Experimental procedure
Tool, workpiece, and equipment
A twist drill with a straight (uncoated) cutting edge was
used in this study. The tool was manufactured by
DaShuo Ltd and was composed of cemented carbide.
The geometric parameters include a 6.0 mm diameter,
118° point angle, 25° helix angle, 54° chisel edge angle,
12° reference relief angle, and 0.97 mm web thickness.
The reference relief angle is measured at the outermost
point of the drill.
Among the fibre-reinforced composites, CFRP is the
most common material used in hybrid structures
because of their excellent mechanical properties. The
CFRP used in this study is woven-ply, which possesses
near maximum stiffness and strength along both direc-
tions.14 The woven CFRP consists of fibre (T300) and
matrix (epoxy resin) with 40% resin content. The mate-
rial properties of the woven CFRP are listed in Table 1.
The workpieces are composed of woven CFRP and
Ti-6Al-4V alloy. Plates of the two materials were cut
into small strips that were 30 mm wide and 120 mm
long. A CFRP strip with a 5.3 mm thickness was placed
Thermal conductivity of fibre Elasticity modulus Density
6.4 W/(m K) 70 GPa 1.6 g/cm3
Thermal conductivity Elasticity modulus Density
7.3 W/(m K) 110 GPa 4.43 g/cm3
Figure 7. Design of the drilling experiments.
on top of a titanium strip with a 4.5 mm thickness. The
materials were then joined mechanically using stainless
steel bolts. The material properties of the Ti-6Al-4V
alloy are given in Table 2.
The drilling experiments were conducted on a com-
puter numerical control (CNC) milling machine
(XKN713). To avoid the influence of deflection on the
drilling process, a backing plate with 8 mm holes was
placed under the workpiece. The thrust force during
the drilling process was recorded using a dynamometer
(Kistler 9125A) that was located under the backing
plate. Combined with a charge amplifier (Kistler 5237),
the force signals were collected and saved with a data
recorder (HBM GEN2i). For clarity, the experimental
design is shown in Figure 7.
Test methodology
A series of experiments was performed to investigate
the effect of the edge radius and feed rate on the thrust
force. The selected feed rates were 0.06, 0.09, and
0.12 mm/rev. For each feed rate, 80 holes were drilled
with a new drill bit. The edge radius of each drill was
measured before each experiment and after every 16
holes drilled. The two stacked materials were drilled
with the same parameters. We note that the high tem-
peratures generated when drilling titanium at high
speed will destroy the CFRP at the stack interface.17
Luo et al.
Figure 8. Measurement of the peripheral edge profile. (a)
Micro-measurement device. (b) Topography of cutting edge. (c)
Profile of cutting edge.
Therefore, a low spindle speed should be used when
drilling CFRP/Ti-6Al-4V stacks. Spindle speed has lit-
tle influence on the thrust force, but it significantly
affects cutting temperature, especially when drilling Ti-
6Al-4V alloys.14 This study focuses on the influence of
tool wear on thrust force, and the cutting temperature
is not considered. For this reason, the spindle speed
was not selected as an input parameter for the predic-
tive models. Instead, the spindle speed was held con-
stant at 1000 rev/min in all experiments. The cutting
speed varies with radius distance, whose maximum
value is 0.26 m/s at the periphery.
To obtain the edge radius of the worn drill, an opti-
cal three-dimensional (3D) micro-measurement device
(InfiniteForce IFM G4) was used to measure the
drill edges (Figure 8(a)). The measured data (as a
Figure 9. Edge profile and fitted circle: (a) N = 0, (b) N = 16, (c) N = 32, (d) N = 48, (e) N = 64, and (f) N = 80.
7
point-cloud) were processed to generate a 3D topogra-
phy of the cutting edge (Figure 8(b)). The profile of the
peripheral worn edge was obtained by cutting the topo-
graphy with a plane perpendicular to the cutting edge
(Figure 8(c)). The profile data were then used to calcu-
late the edge radius.
Determination of the coefficients
The edge profile is rotated to be symmetric around the
vertical axis. Points within theoretical straight lines are
chosen to draw a circle that fits the measured profile as
close as possible. In addition, the circle must also be
tangent to both straight fitting lines. The radius of the
fitted circle is the round edge radius. The round edge
profiles and their fitted circles for a different number of
drilled holes are shown in Figure 9 for a 0.09 mm/rev
feed rate. The edge radius is not constant along the cut-
ting edge, and the radius is measured at a distance of
2.9 mm.
The statistical method ‘moving average’ is used to
smooth the thrust force signals. Figure 10 shows the
maximum forces (Tmax) chosen from the smoothed
curves in the CFRP and titanium region. Polynomial
regression lines show the variation trends of force Tmax
(Figure 10). The average absolute deviation (D) of Tmax
is calculated using equation (23), and the average devia-
tions D are 12.34% and 0.85% for CFRP and Ti-6Al-
4V alloy, respectively. Although the maximum forces
for CFRP are clearly distinct, the fitting lines have the
same trend as that of Ti-6Al-4V alloy. The maximum
forces for CFRP at varying feed rates coincide with
each other because they are discrete. To show Tmax of
CFRP clearly, the maximum thrust forces for each feed
rate are presented separately in Figure 10(a)–(c)
8 Proc IMechE Part B: J Engineering Manufacture

Figure 10. Maximum thrust forces versus number of drilled holes: (a) drilling CFRP at f=0.12mm/rev, (b) drilling CFRP at
f=0.09mm/rev, (c) drilling CFRP at f=0.06mm/rev, (d) drilling Ti-6Al-4V alloy.

Figure 11. Cutting forces versus edge radius: (a) thrust force of CFRP, (b) thrust force of Ti-6Al-4V alloy, (c) ploughing force of
CFRP, (d) ploughing force of i-6Al-4V alloy.

X jTfit  Tmax j=Tmax 
D=
N
where Tfit is the fitted value of the maximum thrust
force and N is the number of drilled holes.
Figure 11(a) and (b) represents the variation of the
fitted maximum forces with the edge radius at different
feed rates. Since the edge radius of a fresh drill bit is
greater than zero, the shearing force Fsh,f is obtained by
linear extrapolation of thrust force. The force Fsh,f
equals the vertical intercept of the fitted line where the
edge radius is zero. The ploughing force Fpl,f is deter-
ð23Þ mined by subtracting the shearing force from the force
Tfit. In addition, linear fitting was also used to obtain
the force Fpl,f. The coefficients of determination (R2)
are calculated and shown in Figure 11(c) and (d). In
section ‘Model evaluation’, the causes of the increases
in thrust force and ploughing force with the edge radius
are presented.
The coefficients of the proposed model are calibrated
by employing equations (19) and (20) based on the
shearing and ploughing forces. The calibrated values
Luo et al. 9

Table 3. Calibrated coefficients.

kc0 (N/mm2) kc1 (N/mm2) kc2 (N/mm2) a Ab (N/mm2) Bb (N/mm)

CFRP 319.3 139.0 259.0 0.55 312.3 20.15

Ti-6Al-4V alloy 1392.4 606.5 2257.4 0.64 959.2 20.90

CFRP: carbon fibre–reinforced plastic.

Table 4. Comparison of the maximum thrust forces.

f (mm/rev) No. CFRP Ti-6Al-4V alloy

Exp. (N) Pre. (N) Err. (%) Exp. (N) Pre. (N) Err. (%)

0.06 01 123.31 138.91 12.65 667.48 711.01 6.52

16 163.79 163.34 20.27 772.07 786.05 1.81
32 194.04 186.00 24.14 864.50 855.64 21.02
48 214.91 206.69 23.82 940.90 919.18 22.31
64 230.46 227.05 21.48 1005.07 981.70 22.33
80 244.76 248.57 1.56 1060.82 1047.80 21.23
0.09 01 154.67 161.97 4.72 800.53 811.91 1.42
16 183.21 180.32 21.58 868.06 868.27 0.02
32 207.19 200.41 23.27 938.45 929.95 20.91
48 225.70 220.17 22.45 1001.37 990.66 21.07
64 239.99 241.08 0.45 1050.93 1054.87 0.38
80 251.29 260.99 3.86 1081.20 1116.02 3.22
0.12 01 174.01 180.30 3.62 892.64 890.62 20.23
16 203.32 196.86 23.18 965.43 941.49 22.48
32 224.41 214.63 24.36 1025.76 996.05 22.90
48 238.88 233.97 22.05 1071.77 1055.45 21.52
64 250.67 253.48 1.12 1107.12 1115.38 0.75
80 263.73 273.56 3.73 1135.42 1177.04 3.67
Average (abs) 3.24 1.88

CFRP: carbon fibre–reinforced plastic.

are listed in Table 3. For the chisel edge, the mechanism
to remove material is different than that for the cutting
lips. Therefore, coefficient kc0 is replaced with kc1 and
kc2 is set to zero.
Results and discussion
Model evaluation
The proposed model, whose coefficients are listed in
Table 3, was used to predict the variation of the thrust
force with machine time. The coefficient values were
calibrated from experimental data. Lazar and
Xirouchakis37 proposed a model to predict the distribu-
tion of thrust force along the main cutting edges when
drilling CFRP. In their model, a similar equation for
the specific cutting pressure kc was presented and the
coefficient kc2 was also negative. Pressure kc is positive
along the drill edge because coefficient kc1 is positive
and is much larger than coefficient kc2. The edge radius
is never zero, even for a new tool.30 Additionally, the
predicted ploughing force is positive because Bb is
much smaller than Ab. To validate the model, the pre-
dicted forces were compared with the measured forces.
Table 4 lists the maximum thrust forces predicted by
the present model and the experimental results. It is
found that the proposed model performs well for Ti-
6Al-4V alloy, with an average absolute error of 1.88%.
The average absolute error for CFRP is 3.24%. The
maximum absolute errors do not exceed 12.65% and
6.25% for CFRP and Ti-6Al-4V alloy, respectively.
The absolute errors are within 5%, except for the first
hole. A negative error indicates that the predicted
thrust force is smaller than the experimental value.
The predicted errors for CFRP are slightly higher
than those of titanium because of the high deviation of
the thrust force in the CFRP region. A difference in the
mechanism of material removal is the main reason
behind the high discreteness of the recorded thrust force
in the CFRP region.14 For ductile materials such as tita-
nium alloy, elastic–plastic deformation is the mechan-
ism of material removal. Deformation is a steady state
that leads to continuous formation of chips. In con-
trast, because of the brittleness of the fibre/matrix sys-
tem, brittle fracture is the mechanism of material
removal when drilling CFRP. Fractures are relatively
unsteady and lead to powdery chips. Therefore, the
deviation of the recorded thrust force in the CFRP
region is larger.
Figure 12 shows the predicted and experimental
thrust forces of the entire drill cycle with varying edge
radii. As seen, the predicted and experimental force
10 Proc IMechE Part B: J Engineering Manufacture

Figure 12. Comparisons of thrust forces (f = 0.09 mm/rev): (a) rb=10.31mm, (b) rb=19.48mm, (c) rb=25.03mm, (d) rb=32.58mm,
(e) rb=40.55mm, (f) rb=48.15mm.

curves show the same trends and peak magnitudes for

both materials. The predicted value is first higher and
then lower than the measured value during the exit
stage. The reason for this is that deformation of the
workpiece at exit reduces the drop process of the thrust
force and extends the machining time. This trend is
obvious in high thrust force cases. Deformation occurs
when uncut material is thin at the exit stage. The
morphologies of the exit surfaces were observed during
the exit stage when drilling CFRP,40 which indicated
the existence of deformation. The deformation causes
exit burr for metals or protrusions for CFRP on the
exit surface. Exit burrs are the main defect when drill-
ing metals,5,6 whereas protrusions at the hole exit have
been observed when drilling CFRP/Al stacks.41

Effect of cutting parameters on edge radius

A round cutting edge is a suitable parameter to evalu-
ate the bluntness of drill bits, as observed from Figure
9, indicating that the wear rate is identical on the rake
and relief faces. A similar conclusion was reached in the
work of Park et al.,32 where the edge wear and flank
wear showed a similar amount of wear length at lower
spindle speeds with carbide drills. Figure 13 shows the
variation of the edge radius with the number of drilled
holes and cutting distance at different feed rates. The
edge radius increases with both cutting distance and the
number of holes at varying feed rates. The growth rate
of the edge radius increases with the feed rate when the
Figure 13. Edge radius versus the number of drilled holes and
the cutting distance at varying feed rates edge radius versus (a)
Number of drilled holes. (b) Cutting distance.
same cutting distance is covered, whereas it slightly
decreases with the feed rate when the same number of
holes is drilled.
The edge radius is proportional to the square root of
the product of the cutting force and cutting distance,
according to equation (12). Both the cutting force and
distance linearly increase with the number of holes
Luo et al.
drilled at a constant feed rate so that the product shows
a quadratic increase. Furthermore, the edge radius has
a linear relationship with the number of drilled holes.
The cutting force increases as the feed rate increases,
but the cutting distance decreases after a certain num-
ber of holes are drilled. According to equation (18), the
ratio of the edge radius with varying feed rates after
drilling the same number of holes can be expressed as
equation (24)
 a=2
rb1 f1
= ð24Þ
rb2 f2
As shown in Table 3, coefficient a is positive. If f1/
f2 \ 1, then rb1/rb2 . 1, which suggests that the
growth rate of the edge radius decreases as the feed rate
increases. Similar relationships between tool wear and
feed rate have been observed previously. In milling the
composite, experimental results showed that flank wear
of all of the investigated tools decreased as the feed rate
increased at the same chip volume.42 Tool wear showed
an inverse relation to feed rate at the same cutting
depth during the drilling process of metal-matrix com-
posites.43 Since exponent a/2 is small (approximately
0.3), the edge radius indicates no significant difference
within the experimental range.
Effect of the edge radius on thrust force
As observed from Figure 10, the maximum thrust force
increases with feed rate for both materials when the
CFRP/Ti-6Al-4V stacks are drilled. This is somewhat
analogous to what Ramulu et al.17 reported in their
work. In this study, tool wear is characterised by the
cutting edge radius. With an increase in the edge
radius, the thrust force essentially increases linearly, as
observed from Figure 11(a) and (b). A similar correla-
tion between thrust force and tool wear was also found
in drilling composite materials.30,35 Two cutting ele-
ments with different edge radii are presented in
Figure 14. The two elements have the same cutting
depths tc, rake angles g0, and relief angles. For the
round edge, the rake angle varies from 2p/2 at contact
point P to g 0 at point S. Previously, an equivalent rake
angle computed from the ratio tc/rb was employed to
calculate the cutting force of a round edge.44 In this
work, the equivalent rake angle (g e) of arc SP is used to
Figure 14. Cutting elements with different edge radii.
11
explain the influence of the edge radius on the thrust
force. The angle ge is smaller than g 0. The equivalent
rake angle is identical for the cutting elements with the
same rake and relief angles because the round part of
the edge has the same shape.
The unit cutting force acting on a round edge is
larger than that on a sharp edge because the cutting
force decreases as the rake angle increases. The thrust
force of a round edge can be expressed as equation (25)
T = Tu, g0 tc + (1 + sin g 0 )(Tu, ge  Tu, g0 )rb ð25Þ
where Tu,g0 and Tu,ge are the unit thrust forces per cut-
ting depth for rake angles g 0 and g e, respectively.
Equation (25) indicates that the thrust force increases
linearly with the edge radius. The results of linear fitting
the ploughing force show that the coefficient of deter-
mination (R2) is larger than 0.95 for both materials
(Figure 11(c) and (d)), which suggests that the plough-
ing force increases linearly with the edge radius. A simi-
lar relationship was found by Wyen and Wegener. In
that case, the influence of the edge radius on the
ploughing force in the feed direction was linear when
titanium alloys were machined.38 The thrust force
increases equally with ploughing force at the same
feed rate.
The increase in the feed rate results in a higher thrust
force and torque, larger surface roughness, worse
roundness of the hole, smaller burr defects, and larger
delamination when the CFRP/Ti-6Al-4V stack is
drilled.14,17,27,41 Despite the occurrence of various types
of defects, delamination induced in CFRP and burrs
produced in titanium are consistently among the most
serious types of defects.14,45 Burr height is proportional
to the thrust force for the same feed rate,27 and delami-
nation increases with the thrust force when drilling
CFRP.25 In this regard, models have been established
to relate the thrust force with delamination and burr
size.5–7 Notably, the model presented in this article
could assist in determining when to change tools to
control machining defects within a suitable range.
Conclusion
This article outlines the novel mechanistic model of
worn drill bits to predict the variation of thrust force
when CFRP/Ti-6Al-4V stacks are drilled. The model
was evaluated by performing appropriate drilling
experiments. On the basis of the results, the following
observations and conclusions can be drawn:
1. The edge radius increases with both cutting dis-
tance and the number of drilled holes at varying
feed rates, which is proportional to the square root
of the product of cutting force and cutting
distance.
2. The edge radius growth rate increases with feed
rate when the same cutting distance is covered,
12
whereas it slightly decreases with feed rate when
the same number of holes is drilled.
3. The maximum thrust force increases with feed rate,
and it essentially increases linearly with the edge
radius of worn drills when drilling CFRP/Ti-6Al-
4V stacks.
4. The predicted thrust force curves are in very good
agreement with experimental results, with average
absolute errors of the maximum value for CFRP
and Ti-6Al-4V alloy of 3.24% and 1.88%,
respectively.
Declaration of conflicting interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest
with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publi-
cation of this article.
Funding
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following finan-
cial support for the research, authorship, and/or publi-
cation of this article: The work reported herein is
sponsored by the National Natural Science Foundation
of China (51275410, 51305352, and 51475379).
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