A discrete element model to investigate sub-surface damage due to surface polishing

Large high-power laser facilities such as megajoule laser (LMJ) or National Ignition Facility (NIF) are designed to focus about 2 MJ of energy at the wavelength of 351 nm, in the center of an experiment chamber. The final optic assembly of these systems, operating at 351 nm is made of large fused silica optics working in transmission. When submitted to laser at the wavelength of 351 nm, fused silica optics can exhibit damage, induced by the high amount of energy traversing the part. The created damage is a set of micro-chips that appear on the optic surface. Current researches have shown that this damage could be initiated on pre-existing sub-surface damages created during the optics manufacturing process. It is then very important to understand, for various set of manufacturing parameters, what are the key parameters for sub-surface damage. The presented work details the development of a simplified model to investigate the polishing process. Both silica (the material to be polished) and the abrasive particles are modeled using a discrete element approach. This numerical tool allows following the evolution of micro-cracks inside the material during the abrasion process. It is shown how the mechanical properties (pressure), the abrasive properties (shape and quantity of abrasive particles) and the system properties (filtration) have an influence on the sub-surface properties at the end of the process.