The anisotropy exhibited by single-crystal silicon in nanometric cutting is very significant. In order to profoundly understand the effect of crystal anisotropy on cutting behaviors, a large-scale molecular dynamics model was conducted to simulate the nanometric cutting of single-crystal silicon in the (100)[0–10], (100)[0-1-1], (110)[−110], (110)[00–1], (111)[−101], and (111)[−12-1] crystal directions in this study. The simulation results show the variations of different degrees in chip, subsurface damage, cutting force, and friction coefficient with changes in crystal plane and crystal direction. Shear deformation is the formation mechanism of subsurface damage, and the direction and complexity it forms are the primary causes that result in the anisotropy of subsurface damage. Structurally, chips could be classified into completely amorphous ones and incompletely amorphous ones containing a few crystallites. The formation mechanism of the former is high-pressure phase transformation, while the latter is obtained under the combined action of high-pressure phase transformation and cleavage. Based on an analysis of the material removal mode, it can be found that compared with the other crystal direction on the same crystal plane, the (100)[0–10], (110)[−110], and (111)[−101] directions are more suitable for ductile cutting.

The surface roughness is a variable used to describe the quality of polished surface. This article presents a surface roughness model based on abrasive cutting and probability theory, which considers the effects of abrasive grain shape, grit and distribution feature, pressure on surface roughness. The abrasive grain protrusion heights are thought to close to Gaussian distribution, and then the relationship between the indentation depth and the pressure based on Hertz contact theory is obtained. Surface roughness prediction model is established by calculating indentation depth of the abrasive grains on workpiece surface. The maximum surface profile height (R_y) is approximately equal to the maximum indentation depth of the abrasive grain. The arithmetic average surface roughness (R_a) is equal to the average indentation depth of the abrasive grain. The effects of process parameters such as pressure and grit on R_y and R_a were simulated and analyzed in detail.