This study is part of the ongoing research at the Department of Mechanical Engineering of the University of Brescia. A simple orthogonal cutting operation was simulated under different cutting conditions: the tool geometry and cutting speed were changed. To simulate material fracture ductile, fracture criteria have been used. The paper summarizes the work done on the prediction of ductile fracture initiation and propagation in orthogonal cutting operations. The results obtained from the FEM program show the potential of the customized FEM software DEFORM 2D in predicting cutting variables and serrated chip formation.