Prediction of laser-induced thermal damage of fiber mat and fiber MatUD reinforced polymers

Laser machining of composites offers several advantages over conventional m ethods, such as no tool wear and contact force-induced material disintegrat ion. The drawback in using the laser is the formation of a heat affected zo ne (HAZ), In the current investigations, analytical heat conduction models are used to determine the extent of the HAZ for anisotropic materials. The conductivity models allow for consideration of the anisotropic heat conduct ivity for GlassMat/PP and GlassMatUD/PP. Extensive experiments were conduct ed on composite materials to examine HAZ, The predictions of the analysis a re compared with experimental results. The analytical results show a good a greement with experiments. The objective of this study is to optimize the w ork process.