DEVELOPMENT OF FINITE ELEMENT MODEL FOR PULSED LASER WELDING

Abstract

The tremendous development in computers and rapid increase in the computational speed and power have stimulated the use of numerical techniques. Versatile and sophisticated techniques such as FEM are being used extensively for such analyses. The advantage of these lies in the capability to consider parameters and properties changing widely within analysis domain, to consider very odd boundary conditions, to provide solution in the presence of complex set of equations governing the process. A two dimensional finite element model for calculation of weld bead dimensions ie. weld depth and weld width is presented taking into consideration laser beam power, beam diameter and laser welding speed. The heat transfer and parametric design capabilities of the finite element code ANSYS is employed for this purpose. Temperature dependent thermophysical properties are being incorporated in the model. Model calculations are being compared with the experimental results and the observation suggest that the results obtained through modeling follows the trend of experimental data for weld bead dimensions. Also the effect of Laser power energy, Laser welding speed, Laser beam diameter on the weld bead geometry is found to be significant