The lapping process for photonic crystal fibers (PCFs) was studied， and the end face damage of the PCFs was discussed. Based on the structure characteristics of the PCFs， a digital simulation model was established by finite element method. Through the simulation of a single grinding hole wall， the occurrence of crack damage under different cutting depths and the effect of damage caused by different grinding grain diameters on the structure of fiber hole wall were analyzed. Finally， the analysis results were verified by the PCF end face lapping experiments. The results show that FEM can effectively simulate the end face lapping process of PCF. As compared to the non hole region， the edge of hole wall is more prone to damage in the lapping process， showing a collapse area distributed along the circumference. The size of collapse area increases with the grit diameter. For no collapse area generation， the maximum cutting depth of this PCF is less than the critical cutting depth of brittle plastic transition of ordinary fiber and the abrasive paper with a thickness of 0.02 μm can be used to polish to avoid the damage on the PCF hole wall.