Journal of Materials Processing Technology 167 (2005) 549554

Computer simulation of single-point diamond turning

using finite element method
H.Y. Wu, W.B. Lee , C.F. Cheung, S. To, Y.P. Chen
Advanced Optics Manufacturing Centre, Department of Industrial and System Engineering,
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong

Abstract
This paper presents a FEM simulation model for the analysis of cutting mechanics in single-point diamond turning (SPDT). The model
is built based on an adaptive meshing approach and pure deformation technique which addresses the mesh distortion problem due to large
deformation existing in the chip formation process of cutting. In modeling the chip formation, a pure deformation technique is employed to
address the deficiency of the conventional FEM model built based on chip separation criterion. This method not only eliminates the need of the
use of the chip separation criterion and a pre-defined parting line, but also achieves a more realistic and physically based chip formation. Since
the tool edge radius has comparable size to the uncut chip thickness in SPDT, the proposed FEM model makes use of a round edge cutting
tool model instead of the perfect sharp tool edge model that has been adopted in most previous research work. A series of FEM simulation
of SPDT of aluminum material is performed by choosing ABAQUS as the computing platform. The FEM simulation experiments yield the
chip formation and distribution of strain/stress field. The morphological features of the chip formation are revealed, which agree well with
the previous studies.
2005 Published by Elsevier B.V.
Keywords: Single-point diamond turning; Finite element method; Adaptive meshing; Round edge cutting tool model; Chip formation; Simulation

1. Introduction
The metal removal operations can be performed on
the micro or macro scales. One can classify machining
operations as conventional machining and ultra-precision
machining by those performance scales. Single-point
diamond turning (SPDT), which is categorized in ultraprecision machining technologies, possesses nanometric
edge sharpness, from reproducibility, and wears resistance.
With the rapidly growing demand for precision components
such as opto-electronics products, SPDT has become
increasingly important for the manufacture of optical
quality components with micrometer to submicrometer
form accuracy and surface roughness in nanometer range
[1].
It is well known that theoretical and experimental
approaches are two master pillars of scientific research activ

Corresponding author. Tel.: +852 2766 6619; fax: +852 2365 9248.
E-mail address: WB.Lee@inet.polyu.edu.hk (W.B. Lee).

0924-0136/$ see front matter 2005 Published by Elsevier B.V.

doi:10.1016/j.jmatprotec.2005.06.015

ities. With the rapid development of the computer technologies including both hardware and algorithm since the last
couples of decades, it is well accepted by the research community that the computer modeling and simulation approach
has inevitably emerged as a third master pillar of the contemporary research activities. Computer simulation techniques, such as finite element method (FEM), have been
widely used in scientific study; in some circumstances,
they can be reasonable substitutes to the physical experiments. Hence, they are often referred to computer simulation
experiments.
Over the past two decades, FEM has been used extensively
in the investigation of orthogonal cutting processes. There
are extensive studies on FEM modeling of the conventional
machining, while FEM simulation of the ultra-precision
machining has received relatively little attention. The earliest
work of FEM model for cutting was done by Klamecki
[2]. Finite element models were refined by a number of
researchers in the 1980s. Carroll and Strenkowski [3]
extended their research to FEM modeling of SPDT based on

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their previous work on the FEM modeling for conventional

cutting process. Ramesh et al. [4] have performed a FEM
analysis of diamond turning of aluminum matrix composite,
in which the possible four encounters of the tool with the
material in Al6061/SiCP metalmatrix composites have
been studied in detail.
However, the depth of cut in SPDT has the comparable
order with the size of crystal grain of workpiece material
and cutting is performed within a single grain. The cutting
behaviour of SPDT is known to depend on crystallographic
factors, e.g., crystal orientation of the workpiece. Material
anisotropy constitutes an important source of fluctuation in
cutting force in ultra-precision machining [5]. Therefore, it
would be ideal to treat workpiece materials as anisotropic.
When the depth of cut becomes of the same order as that of
tool edge radius, it would be no longer valid to treat the tool
edge as perfectly sharp. The aforementioned characteristics
differentiate the study of SPDT from that of the conventional
machining significantly.
Historically, the analytical method was undertaken to
explore the relationships among shear angle, tool rake angle
and tool-work friction in the cutting process. The famous
earlier representatives of analytical model are Merchant and
Oxley models, which are still ancestors of various models being evolved and used nowadays. However, the cutting process involves complex physical phenomenon, and
analytical tools and models are too simplified to represent
sufficiently a reasonable solution to it and direct measurements by experimental approach are difficult to be carried
out. This paper presents a study of computer simulation
experiments of SPDT process via FEM. The FEM simulation of SPDT offers a virtual prototype of physical cutting. Since SPDT is an expensive process, it would have
great value in reducing or even eliminating the number of
trial-and-error experiments and consequently reduces the
cost.

2. FEM modeling issues

Since the ratio of the width of cut to the depth of cut
is large enough in SPDT (usually, the mean ratio of the
width of cut to the depth of cut is at least 2-digits number), the plane strain deformation (orthogonal cutting) can be
assumed.
2.1. Choice of nite element solution platform
It is desirable that the FEM software package chosen
should be efficient in nonlinear computing and it should also
provide flexibility for the user to integrate user-defined subroutines such as material models or users element types. It
should be scalable for the integration with external codes so
as to enhance its overall capabilities in problem solving. By
taking those factors into account, ABAQUS was chosen as
the computing platform.

2.2. Material constitutive model

The elasticplastic material constitutive relationship is
used for workpiece material in the simulation. It is flexible
to integrate user-defined material models. Therefore, it possesses the scalability for the further improvement of material
models such as anisotropic, or mesoplasticity models. In view
of large elastic modulus of the tool material relative to the
workpiece, it is justified that the single-point diamond tool is
modeled as a perfect rigid body.
2.3. Adaptive meshing technique
As mentioned before, the deformation in cutting process
is large and it is likely that the element distortion would occur
during the FEM simulation. To address the element distortion
problems, adaptive meshing is employed to avoid convergence difficulties caused by severely distorted elements. By
allowing the mesh to move independently of the material,
adaptive meshing allows user to maintain a high-quality mesh
throughout the analysis even when large deformations occur.
2.4. Chip formation modeling
A critical issue in finite element simulation of cutting process is the modeling of chip formation. There are two ways to
treat the chip formation modeling in FEM. One is the adoption of a chip separation criterion, which can facilitate the
modeling of material removal process. Another one is the
pure deformation technique.
Chip separation criteria can be divided into two categories, which are geometrical and physical separation criteria, respectively. For a geometrical separation criterion, the
chip is separated when the distance between the tool tip and
the nearest node just ahead of the tool tip is no longer greater
than a given value. Apparently, the geometrical separation
criterion has the disadvantage of lacking of physical meaning. The physical models are based on the threshold values of
selected physical variables, such as stress, equivalent plastic
strain or strain energy density in the element, which is the
closest to the tool chip. For physical separation criterion, a
pair of coincident nodes is prescribed as bonded initially and
they are separated when the threshold value condition is satisfied. A pre-determined part line is needed for the physical
separation criterion. In 1999, Zhang reviews various separation criteria adopted in the previous FEM models [6]. Zhang
asserted that none of the existing criteria is universal and
the rationale of various chip separation criteria was rarely
verified by physical cutting experiments. In contrast, the disadvantage inherent in chip separation criteria can be avoid by
using the pure deformation technique.
The pure deformation technique needs no chip separation
criterion since it handles the cutting process as an indentation process, or a pure deformation process. Neither is the
shape of the chip pre-defined, nor is a pre-determined parting
line existing. For the pure deformation method, there are no

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551

procedures for node separation or element removal, which

implement the chip separation process. Instead, nodes of the
workpiece move on the tool surface and elements deform
greatly close to the tool tip as the tool is advancing. The
adaptive meshing technique is also incorporated to the pure
deformation technique in the chip formation modeling process.
2.5. Toolworkpiece interaction, contact, friction
The interactions between the tool and workpiece, the chip
and the tool are complex contact phenomena. In the current
study, a surface-to-surface contact algorithm is employed.
The tool face is modeled as an analytical rigid surface in
contact with the workpiece surface and chip surface. The
contacts are subject to the coulomb friction law. The friction
coefficient is treated as a constant (the value of friction coefficient is 0.1). To represent a more realistic geometry model,
the round edge cutting tool model is used (with a tool edge
of 0.1 m). This treatment is in line with the characteristic of
the SPDT.
2.6. Mesh arrangement strategy
It is necessary to have a very fine mesh in the primary
and secondary deformation zones. However, the use of the
uniform (unvarying) mesh size throughout the workpiece
inevitably leads to a significant increase of computational
resources and cost. This is a tradeoff for the higher resolution for the solution. Therefore, the mesh pattern in workpiece
should be designed as the mesh is much denser in the vicinity of the primary and secondary deformation zones whilst
coarser mesh should be observed in other areas away from
the two deformation zones. By taking this mesh arrangement
strategy together with certain numbers of trials, a reasonable
finercoarser mesh is used to obtain a good balance between
computational accuracy, time and cost.

3. FEM simulation experiments and results

Fig. 2. Cross-sectional view of the cutting geometry.

the tool and the workpiece is normal in the course of cutting

process. The striped region I is the cross-section of material removed after the tool has been fed into the workpiece
surface, while the shaded region II is removed with each
subsequent feed of the tool. It is interesting to note that the
proportion between cutting radius and depth of cut is exaggerated to show more clearly the regions of material removal
associated with plunge and turning cuts. The cross-sectional
view of the cutting geometry is shown in Fig. 2.
FEM simulation experiments were conducted for diamond
turning aluminum material based on quasi-static analysis.
The interaction properties are defined as constantly frictional (friction coefficient is 0.1). The rake angle and front
clearance angle are 0 and 5 , respectively. Fig. 3 shows a
schematic diagram of the finite element model and boundary
conditions. The cutting tool is modeled as perfect rigid and
subjected to translation movement only prescribed by a reference point (RP). As shown in Fig. 3, the nodes in bottom line
are restricted in both X and Y directions (fixer). The nodes
along left boundary are fixed in X direction only (roller).
Fig. 4 shows one of the mesh plot used in FEM analysis.
Tables 1 and 2 show the mechanical and material properties
of the workpiece.
FEM allows the determination of strain, stress fields in the
workpiece as well as the global parameters, which may be

3.1. Problem specication and boundary conditions

Fig. 1 shows the cutting geometry of a radius-nosed diamond tool and a workpiece in SPDT. Fig. 1 is a front view
of the tools rake face, to which the relative motion between

Fig. 1. The schematic geometry of single-point diamond turning.

Fig. 3. Geometry and boundary conditions in Lagrangian cutting model.

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Fig. 4. Chip formation and machining surface with tool advance (depth of cut 1 m).
Table 1
The mechanical properties of the workpiece material
Elastic modulus (GPa)
Poisson ratio
Density (kg/m3 )

38
0.33
2672

Table 2
Yield stressplastic strain data for the workpiece material
Yield stress (Pa)

Plastic strain

27.0 E6
31.0 E6
32.5 E6

0
0.25
0.5

difficult to determine through experimental method. The current FEM computer simulation experiments of SPDT yield
the chip formation. Fig. 4 shows the chip formation and mesh
alteration (depth of cut at 1 m). The FEM calculation yields
the strain field and subsequently the stress field on the work-

piece. Fig. 5 shows the contour plots of equivalent plastic

strain and the contour plots for the Von Mises effective stress
field is shown in Fig. 6.
3.2. Chip formation morphology
In the present study, the chip formation has achieved
without any chip separation criteria. The chip formation
morphology is discussed in the following section. From the
contour plots strain/stress field, one can observe that plastic
deformation occurs in two regions: the primary deformation
zone, which stretches form the tool tip to the free surface of
the workpiece, and the secondary deformation zone at the
toolchip interface. It is found that the primary deformation
zone is a narrow zone, in which large strains are imparted to
the chip. The average thickness of the zone is in the order
of one-tenth of the thickness of the chip. It is often observed
that the deformation zone extends below the toll point and it
imparts a residual stress to the machined surface. The strains
imparted in the deformation zone are large and strain rates

Fig. 5. Contour plot of equivalent plastic strain with/without mesh (depth of cut 1 m).

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553

Fig. 6. Contour Mises Stress at two tool advance distances (depth of cut 1 m).

are also large because the strains are imparted in a narrow

zone, which is rapidly traversed. The computer simulation
morphological information about the chip formation agrees
quite well with the results reported in the previous studies by
Stephenson and Agapiou [7]. Hence, the effectiveness of the
present FEM model is verified. Since there is no chip separation criteria needed, the chip formation and the machining
surface model are more physically based.
It is interesting to note that the machined surface would be
straight line if a separation criterion is imposed. With the use
of the pure deformation technique, a wavy machined surface
is formed after the cutting. This agrees well with some previous research work [1,8,9] reported for the swelling effect
in diamond turning. The swelling effect is due to the complex elastic and plastic recovery of the machined surface.
This infers that the proposed model is possible to simulate
the effect of swelling which is difficult to be simulated and
explained by geometrical surface topography model [1].

is lack of supports from experiments. The pure deformation

technique employed in the present study cannot only eliminate the need of the use of the chip separation criterion and a
pre-defined parting line but also achieves a more realistic and
physically based chip formation. Since the tool edge radius
is comparable to the uncut chip thickness in SPDT, the proposed FEM model makes use of a round edge cutting tool
model instead of the perfect sharp tool edge model that has
been adopted in most previous research work.
A series of FEM simulation of SPDT of aluminum
material is performed by using ABAQUS as the computing
platform. The FEM simulation experiments yield good
chip formation morphology and the convergent solutions
are obtained at fairly reasonable computational cost. The
morphological features of the chip formation are found
to agree well with the previous studies. The present FEM
model provides a good foundation for further development
of FEM simulation in SPDT.

4. Concluding remarks

Acknowledgement

Computer simulation experiments of SPDT using FEM

have been conducted. The modeling and simulation are carried out by employing commercial FEM package ABAQUS
as computational platform. Some special techniques are used
to build the FEM model, which includes:

The authors would like to express their sincere thanks

to the Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong Special
Administrative Region of the Peoples Republic of China for
financial support of the research work under the project no.
PolyU5188/01E.

(i) adaptive meshing;

(ii) round edge cutting tool model (with the tool edge radius
characterizing the tool edge);
(iii) pure deformation technique in modeling chip formation
(without any chip separation criteria).
Since large deformation exists in the chip formation process of SPDT, it is likely that the distortion of the element
would occur during the FEM simulation. As a result, the
adaptive mesh technique is used to address the mesh distortion problem. In modeling the chip formation, the chip
separation criterion is widely used in the most of the previous study of FEM simulation of cutting. However, none of
the chip separation criteria are universal and their rationale

References
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[4] M.V. Ramesh, K.C. Chan, W.B. Lee, C.F. Cheung, Finite-element
analysis of diamond turning of aluminum matrix composites, Compos.
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[5] W.B. Lee, M. Zhou, A theoretical analysis of the effect of crystallographic orientation on chip formation in micro-machining, Int. J.
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