Abstract
Glass Fibre Reinforced Plastic (GFRP) composites are used in many engineering applications due to their superior properties than other materials. Drilling is widely used in the assembly of these composites. It is very important to determine the drilling parameters for high hole surface quality, minimum deformation and thrust force when drilling GFRP materials. Therefore, optimum drilling conditions must be determined to minimize hole surface damage during the drilling process. In this study, the thrust force in the drilling process was optimized by using the Taguchi Method. In addition, mathematical models have been developed to predict thrust force. The contribution rates of the drilling parameters on the thrust force were determined by analysis of variance. According to variance analysis, it was seen that the most effective parameter on the thrust force was the feed rate. Taguchi Method, first and second order regression models were used to estimate thrust force. The results obtained were compared with the experimental results. Among the developed models, the model with the highest prediction ability is the second-order regression model with the highest R2 value (98.14%) and the lowest average absolute error value (1.86%). When the three-dimensional graphs are examined, it has been shown that the thrust force decreases as the amount of multi-walled carbon nanotubes and the cutting speed increases, and the thrust force increases as the amount of feed increases. Additionally, when three-dimensional graphs are examined, it has been shown that as the % multi-walled carbon nanotube ratio and cutting spees increases, the thrust force decreases and the thrust force increases as the feed rate increases.