Pulsed lasers are used in a variety of materials processing applications th
at range from hearing for metallurgical transformation to scribing vehicle
identification numbers on anodized aluminum strips. These lasers are common
ly configured to deliver a large quantity of heat energy in very short time
intervals and over very small areas due to the manner in which radiant ene
rgy is stored within, and then released from, the laser resonator. At the p
resent time, little is known about the effect of pulse duration on thermome
chanical distortion! during heating without phase change. To explore this i
ssue, a boundary element method rt ns developed to calculate temperature, d
isplacement, and thermal stress fields in a layer that is rigidly bonded to
an inert semi-space. The layer absorbs thermal energy from a repetitively
pulsed laser in the plane of its free surface. The effects of two pulse dur
ations, which differ by four-orders-of-magnitude, were examined in this wor
k. The temporal profiles of ultrafast pulses of the order of ten picosecond
s (such as those emitted by a mode-locked laser), and pulses of the order o
f tens-of-nanoseconds (such as those emitted by a Q-switched Nd:YAG laser)
were mathematically modeled using a rectified sine function. The spatial pr
ofile of each pulse was shaped to approximate a Gaussian strip source. The
equations of coupled thermoelasticity, wherein the speed of mechanical dist
ortion due to material expansion during heat absorption is finite, but the
speed of heat propagation within the layer is infinite, were solved for bot
h pulse durations The resulting temperature and stress fields were compared
with those predicted in the limit of no thermomechanical coupling.