Numerical Investigation of Effect of Operating Parameters on the Phase Transformation During Vibration-Assisted Nano-Impact Machining of Silicon by Loose Abrasives

Abstract

Vibration-assisted nano-impact machining by loose abrasives (VANILA) is a newly developed process based on the atomic force microscope (AFM) platform, where the nanoabrasive (diamond particles) slurry is injected between the workpiece and the vibrating AFM probe. This study aims to use the commercial finite element method (FEM) software package abaqus to simulate the phase transformation experienced by the silicon workpiece and to study the effects of VANILA process parameters, such as impact speed, impact angle, and coefficient of friction between the nanoabrasive and silicon workpiece, on the volume of phase transformation of silicon. Among these three parameters, impact speed is found to have the most dominating effect on the phase transformation process, followed by impact angle and friction coefficient. It is found that the volumes for Si-VII, Si-VIII, and Si-X phases increase with the increase of impact speed from 100 m/s to 200 m/s. The phase volumes of Si-VII and Si-VIII are found to decrease slightly with the increase of friction coefficient from 0.05 to 0.5. The phase volumes for Si-VII, Si-VIII, and Si-X are found to increase with the increase of impact angles from 20 deg to 90 deg. Finally, the multiple linear regression modeling using a design of experiments is carried out to study the relationship among the three parameters and the volume of different phases of silicon.