Effects of anisotropy on single-crystal SiO₂ in nano-metric cutting

The nano-metric cutting process of single-crystal SiO2 was studied using molecular dynamics simulation, where the effects of anisotropy on material removal and surface integrity were analyzed. The typical crystal directions on different crystal planes of SiO2 were selected as cutting directions. The results show that the chip formation, temperature distribution in the machined area, cutting force, phase transformation and damage layer thickness vary according to the cutting direction. The crystal orientation of (110) [00-1] exhibits a large range of damage expansion while (110) [1-10] exhibits the smallest range. In addition, the radial distribution function results show that SiO2 workpieces cut in different directions vary in crystal phase type and content to some degree, while a new phase is produced in the cutting direction of (111) [-101]. Therefore, the anisotropy of the selection of crystal planes and crystal directions is of great significance for the nano-metric cutting of SiO2 to obtain quality machined surfaces of SiO2.