Dear Colleagues,

Fiber-Reinforced Polymer (FRP) composite laminates, such as Carbon Fiber-Reinforced Polymers (CFRP), Glass Fiber-Reinforced Polymers (GFRP), Aramid Fiber-Reinforced Polymers (AFRP) or more recently Natural Fiber-Reinforced Polymers (NFRP), exhibit enhanced properties compared to conventional materials and are gradually preferred to them in various engineering applications such as automotive parts or sport goods. In the particular case of the modern aeronautical manufacturing, emerging hybrid Fiber Metal Laminates (FML) or bi-material metallic-composite stacks are used to obtain better structural functionalities and mechanical properties superior to those of the individual components. Despite their widespread applications, drilling of these composite laminates with required quality remains a challenging task because of the heterogeneity, anisotropy and high abrasiveness of fibers for the FRP composites and due to the disparate machinability of each constituted material in the case of hybrid stacks.

The drilling performance and drilled-hole quality are essentially characterized by surface roughness, peel-up and push-out delamination, mechanical and thermal damages and thrust force. They depend on cutting parameters (cutting speed and feed rate), drilling tool characteristics (type, geometry, coating, material) and drilling processes (conventional and unconventional).

This Special Issue focuses on latest experimental and theoretical advancements in the fields of various drilling processes for composite laminates covering large topic including these main aspects: damage modelling in composite drilling by FE approaches or analytical models, optimization of process parameters, development of special drill bits, damage detection and quantification, wear prediction and tool performance… Authors are encouraged to contribute to the Special Issue by submitting original papers as well as review articles.

Dr. Gérald Franz
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All papers will be peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Journal of Composites Science is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• Composite laminates (CFRP, GFRP, AFRP)
• Fiber-Metal Laminates (FML) and FRP/metal stacks
• Conventional drilling and orthogonal cutting
• Non-traditional drilling processes (e.g. vibration-assisted drilling, orbital drilling, …)
• Drilled-hole quality (delamination, roughness, diameter…)
• Chip formation and removal mechanisms
• Drill wear mechanisms and tool life
• Tribological behavior and friction tool-chip interface modeling
• Numerical simulation and FE analysis
• Mechanistic and analytical modeling of thrust force and heat generation