This paper studies the micro-cutting characteristics of aluminum alloy (2A12) based on a series of orthogonal experiments and finite element method (FEM) simulations.An energy-based ductile failure law was proposed in the FEM simulation.The simulated cutting forces and chip morphology were compared with experimental results.The simulation result indicates that there is a close relationship between the cutting force and cutting heat.The micro-cutting force decreases as the heat flux vector increases.Both the cutting heat and the micro-cutting force need a finite time to achieve a steady state.It is observed that with the cutting speed of 169.95 m/min and uncut chip thickness of 6 μm,the heat flux vector in the workpiece increases to a stable value after 0.06 ms; meanwhile,the principal cutting force decreases to a steady state correspondingly,i.e.,the micro-cutting process achieves the steady state.It is concluded that the steady state micro-cutting simulation can reflect the cutting process accurately.