THE EXTENT OF LASER-INDUCED THERMAL-DAMAGE OF UD AND CROSSPLY COMPOSITE LAMINATES

Composite materials exhibit poor quality cut surfaces due to spalled f ibres, fuzzing, and delamination when routed by conventional tools. La ser beam cutting offers an ideal means for the cutting of fibre compos ite materials, being a non-contact and virtually force-free manufactur ing method. However, in the shaping operation of composite materials a fter curing, thermal damage associated with laser energy can be produc ed. It leads to poor assembly tolerance and long-term performance dete rioration. In the current investigations, 3-dimensional anisotropic he at conduction models based on moving point heat source for thermal ana lysis are presented to predict heat affected zone (HAZ). Also, the con ductivity models allow to consider the anisotropic heat conductivity f or unidirectional (UD) and [0/90] laminates. Taking the immersing heat source and Mirror Image Method into account would further improve the prediction of HAZ. Extensive experiments were conducted on composite materials to examine HAZ, and compared with experimental results. The analytical results show a good agreement with experiments. (C) 1998 Pu blished by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.