Study on critical rake angle in nanometric cutting

Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of nanometric-cutting copper are conducted to study the critical rake angle during the cutting process. A new approach based on the maximum displacement of atoms in cutting direction is proposed to estimate the chip formation in MD simulation. It is found that the minimum rake angle for chip formation is -65 degrees-(-70 degrees) and the subsurface deformations of copper are mostly the dislocation and stacking faults. Three-dimensional simulation results show that the effective rake angle of stagnation region is constant with the same depth of cut. According to the limited depth of cut of copper can be achieved, the available minimum tool edge radius is suggested to be not less than 10 nm.