Title: Thermodynamic modelling of the surface treatment of a wide thin steel plate with a Gaussian laser beam

Authors: Feng Qiu; Veli Kujanpää

Addresses: Laboratory of Laser Processing, LUT Metal, Lappeenranta University of Technology, Tuotantokatu 2, 53850 Lappeenranta, Finland ' Laboratory of Laser Processing, LUT Metal, Lappeenranta University of Technology, Tuotantokatu 2, 53850 Lappeenranta, Finland

Abstract: This study develops a thermodynamic model to investigate the quasi-steady thermal process of a wide thin steel workpiece irradiated with a moving Gaussian laser beam. Equations are established for temperature distribution, transformation boundaries, homogenisation time of austenite and cooling rate. The equations are numerically solved with an error of less than 10−8. The temperature distributions for various thicknesses are compared with that for infinite thickness at different laser traverse speed. The lag of the peak temperature relative to the centre of laser beam is found to be limited. The conditions to produce full and partial martensite are investigated. The model is verified by comparing the calculated Ac1 and Ac3 depths and temperature cycles with the experimental results. For AISI 4340 steel, correction coefficients are applied to the model to produce an empirical equation for temperature cycles above 488.4°C.

Keywords: hardening; Gaussian laser beam; thermal cycle; temperature distribution; cooling rate; hardened depth; thermodynamic modelling; laser surface treatment; carbon steel; steel plates.

DOI: 10.1504/IJCMSSE.2013.053201

International Journal of Computational Materials Science and Surface Engineering, 2013 Vol.5 No.2, pp.131 - 153

Received: 21 Feb 2012
Accepted: 19 Sep 2012

Published online: 21 Jun 2014 *

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