Numerical investigation of laser beam shaping for heat transfer control in laser processing

This article presents a thermal finite volume model adapted to investigate laser processes. It is specially developed to treat moving heat sources with phase changes, melting and vapourisation. Heat transfer control in laser processing is particularly useful when processes must respect prescribed temperatures, or more generally, prescribed constraints. These processes involve generally several laser sources, or non-conventional power distribution. Hence, they have numerous parameters to set. Experimental optimisation is difficult and may be expansive. The numerical model is a useful and cheaper tool for development of those complex processes. For example in this article, two special laser processes are investigated: control of high carbon steel welded line cooling, zinc-coated sheets lap welding.