FEM SIMULATION OF THE TEMPERATURE-FIELD DURING THE LASER FORMING OF SHEET-METAL

A laser beam can be used as a flexible sheet metal forming tool. Its m echanism is the forming caused by thermal stresses resulted from the i rradiation of laser beam scanning. Because of the complexity of this p rocess, numerical simulation becomes necessary for its analysis. In th is paper, under the conditions of neglecting thermo-mechanical couplin g, a simplified computational model and corresponding solving method a re established. Then, FEM analysis of the three-dimensional transient temperature field produced by laser beam scanning on the forming sheet is carried out. The results show that: (i) there is good agreement be tween the FEM solution based on the present model and that of FDM base d on the general heat-balance equation; (ii) the peak values of the te mperature of the upper and lower surface are increased with increase o f the laser power, but are decreased with increase of the sheet thickn ess and the scanning velocity; and (iii) the temperature difference in the thickness direction is increased with increase of the laser power and the thickness, and decrease of the scanning velocity. (C) 1998 El sevier Science S.A.