Product Code: ICA12_1903

Modelling of the Cutting Velocity Influence on the Kerf Front During Laser Cutting Process
Authors:
El-Hachemi Amara, Centre for Development of Advanced Technologies, Ionized Media and Lasers Division Laser Material Processing Team; Algiers Algeria
Remy Fabbro, Laboratoire des Procédés et Ingénierie en Mécanique et Matériaux (Arts et Métiers ParisTech-CNRS),; Paris France
Koji Hirano, Nippon Steel Corporation; Tokyo Japan
Presented at ICALEO 2012

We develop a 2D numerical modeling to simulate the cutting process of metals using a high power laser beam. The matter evaporation is simulated by mass transfer from solid to gas, allowing the kerf formation. Phenomena such as humps formation occurring at given cutting speeds are particularly investigated.
In our contribution an original approach is proposed by considering a metallic workpiece surrounded by air at the normal conditions. The laser energy is deposited at the moving metal/air interface, where the interface tracking is treated by the Volume Of Fluid (VOF) method implemented by Fluent CFD code. Due to specificity and complexity of our problem, User Defined Function (UDF) implemented interactively with Fluent, are used to solve the governing equation by finite-volume method. This interactive procedures allow to insert during calculation, the laser heat source effect over the moving interface according to incidence angle on the local interface, the mass transfer occurring between metal and air when a saturation temperature is reached, and the temperature dependent properties of the metal. The model is applied for six cutting velocities varying from 1 to 6 m/mn, and the results show a good accordance with the experimental approach.