Abstract: Aiming at the problems such as excessive axial force and difficulty in chip removal caused by high material strength and great toughness during the drilling process of high-strength, high-toughness and low-density steel, as well as the limitations of traditional test methods such as high cost, long cycle and difficulty in capturing the internal dynamic physical field, a drilling simulation finite element model of this material based on AdvantEdge software is constructed. The influence of cutting parameters on axial force and chips was analyzed through simulation. Through cutting tests, the simulation and test values of axial force, chip compression ratio and curling coefficient were compared and analyzed. On this basis, an axial force prediction model was further established based on the simulation data. The results show that the cutting speed is negatively correlated with the axial force. Feed rate is positively correlated with axial force. The feed rate is positively correlated with the chip compression rate and negatively correlated with the chip curling coefficient. The average error of the axial force was 10.12%, and the average errors of the chip compression rate and the curling coefficient were 2.46% and 4.11% respectively, verifying the accuracy of the finite element model. The established axial force prediction model has good accuracy and can provide effective guidance for axial force control in actual processing.