A Numerical Analysis of Ductile Deformation during Nanocutting of Silicon Carbide via Molecular Dynamics Simulation

Abstract

As a typical third-generation semiconductor material, silicon carbide (SiC) has been increasingly used in recent years. However, the outstanding performance of SiC component can only be obtained when it has a high-quality surface and low-damage subsurface. Due to the hard–brittle property of SiC, it remains a challenge to investigate the ductile machining mechanism, especially at the nano scale. In this study, a three-dimensional molecular dynamics (MD) simulation model of nanometric cutting on monocrystalline 3C-SiC was established based on the ABOP Tersoff potential. Multi-group MD simulations were performed to study the removal mechanism of SiC at the nano scale. The effects of both cutting speed and undeformed cutting thickness on the material removal mechanism were considered. The ductile machining mechanism, cutting force, hydrostatic pressure, and tool wear was analyzed in depth. It was determined that the chip formation was dominated by the extrusion action rather than the shear theory during the nanocutting process. The performance and service life of the diamond tool can be effectively improved by properly increasing the cutting speed and reducing the undeformed cutting thickness. Additionally, the nanometric cutting at a higher cutting speed was able to improve the material removal rate but reduced the quality of machined surface and enlarged the subsurface damage of SiC. It is believed that the results can promote the level of ultraprecision machining technology.

Atomistic study of nano-cutting bicrystal cubic silicon carbide

“…The bicrystal model is completed in the external modeling software atomsk, 45 for simulation, an open-source computer code called ''Large Scale Atomic/Molecular Massively Parallel Simulator'' (LAMMPS) 46 is used in combination with the Open Visualization Tool (Ovito) 47 for visualization and post-treatment of MD simulation data. 48,49…”

Molecular dynamics simulation of the effect of tool parameters on nano-cutting of polycrystalline γ-TiAl alloys

“…Tool cutting performance has a great impact on tool life, material removal efficiency, machining surface quality [7], and the advantages and disadvantages of tool cutting performance depend on the tool material, the geometry of the cutting part of the tool and the structure of the tool [8][9][10]. In recent years, domestic and foreign scholars have carried out a large number of experimental studies and simulations on single and polycrystalline metal material cutting, including the study of cutting process parameters [11][12][13], tool geometry parameters [14,15], cutting temperature [16], grain boundaries [17], grain size [18][19][20] and so on.…”