LAUSR

Metal matrix composites are widely used in aerospace and automotive industries due to their extraordinarily attractive physical and mechanical behavior. In order to compare the machining property of SiCp/Al composite and CNT/Al composite, the two-dimensional orthogonal cutting finite element models were developed by the finite element analysis software ABAQUS/Explicit. The comparison of SiCp/Al composite and CNT/Al composite on the basis of surface quality, sub-surface damage and edge quality was tried out in order to know the machinability of two materials. The results show that the machined surface defects such as small pits, large voids, tear of the matrix and particle breakage are commonly observed during machining of SiCp/Al composite, and the surface residual stress changes from compressive stress to tensile stress. However, there are some large holes, bulges matrix fracture and particle fracture on the machined surface of CNT/Al composite, and the residual stress is mainly compressive stress. Therefore, at the equal reinforcement effect, the machinability of CNT/Al composite is better than that of SiCp/Al composite.