Molecular dynamics simulations of nanometric cutting mechanisms of amorphous alloy

Molecular dynamics simulations are employed to study the nanometric cutting process of Cu ₅₀ Zr ₅₀ amorphous alloy. The effects of cutting depth, cutting speed and tool edge radius on the cutting force, workpiece pile-up and temperature of the cutting region are studied to investigate the mechanisms of the material removal and surface formation in the nanometric cutting process. It is found that the material removal of amorphous alloy workpiece is mainly based on extrusion at the nanoscale instead of shearing at the macroscale. The plastic deformation of amorphous alloy is mainly due to the formation of shear transformation zones during the nanometric cutting process. The results also suggest that bigger cutting depth and cutting speed will lead to larger tangential force and normal force. However, the tool edge radius has a negligible effect on the tangential force although the normal force increases with the increase of tool edge radius. The workpiece pile-up increases with an increase of the cutting depth, but decreases with an increase of the edge radius of the tool. The workpiece pile-up is not significantly affected by the cutting speed. It is also found that larger cutting depth and cutting speed will result in higher temperature in the cutting region of workpiece and the average Newtonian layer temperature of the tool. Tool edge radius has no significant effect on the temperature distribution of the workpiece and the average Newtonian layer temperature of the tool.