Laser pulse heating of steel surface and flexural wave analysis

Laser gas-assisted material processing finds wide application in industry. The modelling of heating, elastic response of the substrate material, and the wave analysis gives insight into the laser workpiece interaction. In the present study, laser gas-assisted heating of steel is considered. The normal component of the thermal stress is taken as the source of load for the flexural wave generation in the material. The flexural wave generated is simulated and the wave characteristics are analyzed at four locations at the workpiece surface. The numerical scheme employing a control volume approach is introduced when solving the governing equations of flow and heat transfer while finite element and spectran element methods are used when solving the stress and wave equations. It is found that the normal component of the stress is tensile. The dispersion effect of the workpiece material, interference of the reflected beam, and partial overlapping of second mode of the travelling wave enable to identify a unique pattern in the travelling wave in the substrate.     

An optical method and neural network for surface roughness measurement

The measurement of surface roughness using stylus equipment has several disadvantages. A non-contact optical method is needed for measuring the surface roughness of engineering metals with improved accuracy. One candidate for an optical method is the use of a laser source, where the laser light intensity reflected from the surface represents the surface roughness of the illuminated area. A relation can be developed between the reflected laser beam intensity and the surface roughness of the metal. The present study examines the measurement of the surface roughness of the stainless steel samples using a He-Ne laser beam. In the measurement a Gaussian curve parameter of a Gaussian function approximating the peak of the reflected intensity is measured with a fast response photodetector. In order to achieve this, an experimental setup is designed and built. In the experimental apparatus, fiber-optic cables are used to collect the reflected beam from the surface. The output of the fiber-optic system is fed to a back-propagation neural network to classify the resulting surface profile and predict the surface roughness value. The results obtained from the present study are then compared with the stylus measurement results. It is found that the resolution of the surface texture improves considerably in the case of optical method and the neural network developed for this purpose can classify the surface texture according to the control charts developed mathematically.     

Radiative phonon transport in silicon and collisional energy transfer in aluminum films due to laser short-pulse heating: Influence of laser pulse intensity on temperature distribution

Energy transfer across aluminum and silicon films through phonon transport is examined in line with the laser short-pulse interaction with the aluminum film. The modified two-equation model is incorporated to compute electron and lattice site temperatures in the aluminum film while phonon radiative transport is used to predict equilibrium temperature in the silicon film. The thermal boundary resistance is considered at the interface of the films in the analysis. The numerical scheme using the finite difference method is adopted to solve the governing equations of energy. It is found that lattice site temperature rise is gradual in the aluminum film in the late heating period. However, equilibrium temperature decay is sharp in the region of silicon interface during this period. The thermal boundary resistance lowers lattice site temperature considerably in the region of the aluminum interface.     

Jet impingement onto a tapered hole: Influence of jet velocity and hole wall velocities on heat transfer and skin friction

Jet impingement onto a hole with elevated wall temperature can be associated with the high‐temperature thermal drilling, where the gas jet is used for shielding the hole wall from the high‐temperature oxidation reactions as observed in the case of laser drilling. In laser processing, the molten flow from the hole wall occurs; and in the model study, the hole wall velocity resembling the molten flow should be accounted for. In the present study, gas jet impingement onto tapered hole with elevated temperature is considered and the heat transfer rates as well as skin friction at the hole wall surface are predicted. The velocity of molten flow from the hole wall determined from the previous study is adopted in the simulations and the effect of hole wall velocity on the heat transfer rates and skin friction is also examined. It is found that the Nusselt number and skin friction at the hole wall in the regions of hole inlet and exit attain high values. The influence of hole wall velocity on the Nusselt number and skin friction is found not to be very significant. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Analysis of the absorption mechanism during laser-metal interaction

The present study examines the absorption of a laser beam at different wavelengths by a partially-ionized vapour during the interaction mechanism. The applicability of the theoretical models developed is discussed in detail. The interaction of the high- and low-power intensities of a laser beam with plasma is distinguished. It is shown that different metal vapours at similar temperatures and densities have absorption depths which may differ by an order of magnitude. Even more substantial is the difference between the absorption depths of light from different lasers in common use. It is also shown that the free electron temperature becomes significantly different from the heavy particle temperature for power intensities above the critical level which is typically > 10¹⁴W/m². The free electron velocity distribution has an isotropic part which becomes non-Maxwellian for power intensities greater than the critical power intensity.     

Laser carbonitriding of alumina surface

Laser carbonitriding of alumina surfaces is examined. Temperature and stress fields developed during the laser heating of the substrate surface are predicted using the finite element method in line with the experimental conditions. The formation of Al(C, N) and AlN compounds in the surface region of irradiated workpiece is examined using X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) and X-ray Diffraction (XRD). The microstructural and morphological changes in the laser irradiated region are examined using Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). The microhardness of the resulting surface is measured and compared with the base material hardness. It is found that high temperature gradient is developed in the irradiated region, which in turn, results in high residual stress levels in this region. XPS and XRD data reveal the presence of Al (C, N) and AlN compounds in the surface region. The microhardness in the surface region of the laser treated workpiece increases significantly.     

Laser short-pulse heating of silicon-aluminum thin films

Energy transport in silicon-aluminum thin films is examined during the laser short-pulse irradiation subjected to the silicon film. The silicon film is considered to be at the top of the aluminum film. Thermal boundary resistance at the interface of the films is incorporated in the analysis. The absorption of laser radiation in the silicon and aluminum films is modeled using the transfer matrix method. Since the silicon film is dielectric, the phonon radiative transport basing the Boltzmann transport equation is incorporated to determine equivalent equilibrium temperature in the film while modified two-equation model is used to account for the non-equilibrium energy transport due to thermal separation of electron and phonon sub-systems in the aluminum film during the laser short-pulse heating process.     

3-dimensional laser heating model including a moving heat source consideration and phase change process

The use of a Fourier heating model in high intensity laser material processing is limited due to the assumptions made in the model. An electron-kinetic theory may offer an alternative solution to the problem. Consequently, in the present study an electron-kinetic theory approach is introduced to model the 3-dimensional laser heating process. The phase change and conduction effects are encountered when driving the governing equations. To simulate the moving heat source, a scanning velocity of the laser beam is considered, in this case, the laser beam scans the workpiece surface with a constant velocity. The governing heat transfer equation is in the form of integro-differential equation, which does not yield the analytical solution. Therefore, a numerical method employing an explicit scheme is introduced to discretize the governing equations. To validate the theoretical predictions, an experiment is conducted to measure the surface temperatures of the workpiece substrate during Nd YAG laser heating process. It is found that the rapid increase in temperature occurs in surface vicinity due to the successive electron-lattice site atom collisions. The depth of melting zone increases as the heating progresses and the temperature remains almost constant at the melting temperature of the substrate in the surface vicinity. In addition, the theoretical predictions agree well with the experimental findings. Received on 4 August 1997     

Heating mechanism in relation to the laser machining process

Laser workpiece interaction mechanism is an important phenomenon which will assist in the development of laser machining systems. The interaction mechanism is generally complicated and depends on the laser and workpiece properties. In the present study a mathematical analysis for the laser material removal by evaporation and radial ejection of liquid is carried out. In the analysis the time unsteady problem is solved and nucleation explosions are predicted.     

Laser gas-assisted processing of carbon coated and TiC embedded Ti-6Al-4V alloy surface

Laser gas-assisted treatment of Ti-6Al-4V alloy surface is carried out. The alloy surface is initially coated by a carbon layer, in which the TiC particles are embedded prior to laser processing of the surface. The carbon coating with the presence of TiC particles on the workpiece surface is expected to result in carbonitride compound in the surface vicinity after the laser treatment process. Optical and scanning electron microscopes are used to examine the morphological and the metallurgical changes in the laser treated layer. The residual stress formed in the surface region after the laser treatment process is critical for the practical applications of the resulting surface. Therefore, the residual stress formed in the laser treated region is predicted from the analytically equation. The X-ray diffraction technique is incorporated to obtain the residual stress formed in the surface region. It is found that the residual stress predicted agrees with the X-ray diffraction data. The dense structures consisting of TiC_xN_1−x, TiN_x, Ti₂N, and TiC compounds are formed in the surface region of the treated layer. This, in turn, significantly increases the microhardness at the surface.