Modelling of Laser Hole Cutting: Effect of Hole Diameter on Thermal Stresses
A. F. M. Arif
Laser hole cutting in sheet metals is modelled using an ANSYS FEM code and an experiment is carried out to resemble the simulation conditions. The temperature and stress fields are computed in the simulations and the microhardness is measured around the resulting cut edges in the experiment. It is found that a sharp decay in the temperature in the vicinity of the cut edges occurs, which is more pronounced for the 4mm hole diameter. The residual stress around the cut edges reduces the local minima and it increases the local maxima with slight increase in distance from the cutting edge towards the solid bulk. The micro-hardness profile around the cut edges show a similar trend with the residual stress predicted in the same region.
Keywords: Laser, cutting, hole, thermal stress.