Study on cell wall deformation in ultrasonic cutting aluminum honeycomb by straight-blade knife

Aluminum honeycomb sandwich structure has been widely used in the aeronautic and astronautic fields. As the core part, aluminum honeycomb needs to be machined but defects are easily generated. Ultrasonic cutting is an advanced machining technology for honeycomb materials due to improved machining quality. However, ultrasonic cutting aluminum honeycomb by straight-blade knife is usually accompanied by cell wall deformation, which results in poor machining quality. To facilitate the industrial use of ultrasonic cutting aluminum honeycomb with a straight-blade knife, a finite element (FE) model was developed, and experimental studies had been performed. The effects of the blade-inclined angle and lead angle of the straight-blade knife were studied by analyzing the cutting force, the stress and deformation in the cutting zone. Results showed that the cell wall deformation was significantly suppressed when cutting with a corresponding blade-inclined angle and a lead angle. Meanwhile, effects of ultrasonic cutting parameters on the cell wall deformation were also studied, indicating that a well-machined cell wall could be obtained when cutting with large ultrasonic amplitude.