The material removal mechanism of single crystal copper in chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) has not been intensively investigated. And the role of crystal orientation in CMP of single crystal cooper is not quite clear yet. Quasi-continuum method was adopted in this paper to simulate the process of nano-particles grinding on single crystal copper in CMP process. Three different crystal orientations, i.e. x[100]y[001], x[001]y[110] and x[-211]y[111], were chosen for analysis. The atom displacement diagrams, stress distribution diagrams and load-displacement curves were obtained. After analyzing the deformation mechanism, residual stress of the work piece material and cutting force, results showed that, the crystal orientation of work piece has great influence on the deformation characteristics and surface quality of work piece during polishing. In the A(001)[100] orientation, the residual stress distribution after polishing is deeper, and the stress is larger than that in the B(110)[001] and C(111)[-211] orientations. And the average tangential cutting force in the A(001)]100] orientation is much larger than those in the other two crystal orientation. This research is helpful to revealing the material removal mechanism of CMP process. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.