Molecular dynamics simulation of nanometric cutting process

Nanoscale machining involves changes in only a few atomic layers at the surface. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulation can play a significant role in addressing a number of machining problems at the atomic scale. In this paper, we employed MD simulations to study the nanometric cutting process of single crystal copper. Instead of the widely used Morse potential, we used the Embedded Atom Method (EAM) potential for this study. The simulations were carried out for various tool geometries at different cutting speeds. Attention was paid to the cutting chip formation, the cutting surface morphology and the cutting force. The MD simulation results show that both the tool geometry and the cutting speed have great influence on the chip formation, the smoothness of machined surface and the cutting force.