This paper studies the micro-cutting characteristics of aluminum alloy (2A12) based on a series of orthogonal experiments and finite element method (FEM) simulations. An energy-based ductile failure law was proposed in the FEM simulation. The simulated cutting forces and chip morphology were compared with experimental results. The simulation result indicates that there is a close relationship between the cutting force and cutting heat. The micro-cutting force decreases as the heat flux vector increases. Both the cutting heat and the micro-cutting force need a finite time to achieve a steady state. It is observed that with the cutting speed of 169.95 m/min and uncut chip thickness of 6 μm, the heat flux vector in the workpiece increases to a stable value after 0.06 ms; meanwhile, the principal cutting force decreases to a steady state correspondingly, i.e., the micro-cutting process achieves the steady state. It is concluded that the steady state micro-cutting simulation can reflect the cutting process accurately.
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