3D finite element analysis of evaporative laser cutting

A three-dimensional computational model of evaporative laser-cutting process has been developed using a finite element method. Steady heat transfer equation is used to model the laser-cutting process with a moving laser. The laser is assumed continuous wave Gaussian beam. The finite element surfaces on evaporation side are nonplanar and approximated by bilinear polynomial surfaces. Semi-infinite elements are introduced to approximate the semi-infinite domain. An iterative scheme is used to handle the geometric nonlinearity due to the unknown groove shape. The convergence studies are performed for various meshes. Numerical results about groove shapes and temperature distributions are presented and also compared with those by semi-analytical methods.