In many microsystem applications, a nanometric surface quality is crucial to the performance of a device. Soft abrasive flow machining (SAFM) is capable of finishing surfaces at very fine scale with complex geometries since, unlike traditional flow machining processes, abrasive grains are carried by a very low viscosity fluid. Several empirical studies have been done to ensure final high quality surfaces by enhancing the performance of SAFM. However, the present study aims to propose a consistent numerical approach which can handle the fluid-structure interface problems as well as surface erosion to model SAFM and help to gain deeper understanding of the process. Moreover, the approach is employed to investigate the effect of an external magnetic field on the performance of the machining process. All phases, namely carrier fluid, abrasive grains and workpiece, and their interactions are fully resolved by using smoothed particle hydrodynamics. The abrasive grains are modeled by particles that are rigidly moved together. The approach is used to study the surface finishing of a Polymethyl Methacrylate-based microchannel under external magnetic fields. Results show that a magnetic field of suitable strength can considerably improve the material removal rate and hence enhance the performance of SAFM.

在许多微系统应用中，纳米表面质量对设备的性能至关重要。软磨料流加工 (SAFM) 能够以非常精细的尺寸精加工具有复杂几何形状的表面，因为与传统的流加工工艺不同，磨粒由非常低粘度的流体承载。已经进行了几项实证研究，以通过提高 SAFM 的性能来确保最终的高质量表面。然而，本研究旨在提出一种一致的数值方法，该方法可以处理流固界面问题以及表面侵蚀以模拟 SAFM，并有助于更深入地了解该过程。此外，该方法用于研究外部磁场对加工过程性能的影响。所有相，即载液，磨粒和工件，以及它们的相互作用通过使用平滑的粒子流体动力学完全解决。磨粒由刚性移动在一起的颗粒建模。该方法用于研究外磁场下聚甲基丙烯酸甲酯基微通道的表面处理。结果表明，适当强度的磁场可以显着提高材料去除率，从而提高 SAFM 的性能。