Investigation into temperature and its effects on hole wall quality in rotary ultrasonic countersinking of thin-walled CFRP/Al stacks

Carbon fiber-reinforcement plastics (CFRP) have been widely applied in modern aerospace industry with aluminum alloy in the form of thin-walled stacks due to their superior mechanical and physical properties. However, for CFRP, the heat accumulation occurs easily during countersinking process in consequence of low thermal conductivity. The surface thermal damage of CFRP caused by excessive heat would affect the fatigue and stealth performance of aircraft. Consequently, the countersinking temperature is an important indicator to judge the feasibility of CFRP countersinking process. In this paper, to investigate temperature of countersinking process, the application of rotary ultrasonic machining technology to CFRP/Al thin-walled stacks countersinking process under different stiffness conditions with drilling-countersinking integrated tool is carried out by FEA (Finite element analysis) and experiments. And the influences of cutting temperature on countersunk wall quality are discussed. The results demonstrate that the maximum countersinking temperature increases with the decrease of axial stiffness, and the ultrasonic vibration can effectively reduce maximum countersinking temperature by 22.9%-26.2%. Furthermore, analysis of the surface quality of countersunk wall shows that the countersunk wall roughness and defects gradually deteriorate with the increase of the maximum countersinking temperature. Meanwhile, the ultrasonic vibration can improve countersunk surface quality by reducing maximum countersinking temperature effectively.