Molecular dynamics investigation of wear mechanisms in drilling motion for FeCrNiCoAl high-entropy alloy

This work employed molecular dynamics (MD) to investigate the wear mechanism in the drilling motion of FeCrNiCoAl high entropy alloy. MD simulations reveal a reduction in tangential force upon applying torque to the tool, attributed to the synergy between rotational and thermal effects. Entropy generation analysis indicates that below 20 GHz, rotational effects prevail, while conversely, thermal effects take precedence. Furthermore, the correlation between wear volume and rotation frequency exhibits non-monotonic characteristics, which suggests that fine-tuning material wear can be achieved through adjustments to the rotation frequency. An in-depth analysis of the strain energy and the Bejan number allows the categorization of wear into three modes: rotation-dominant, transitional, and thermal-dominant.