Thermohydraulic aspects in laser welding and cutting processes

レーザー溶接及び切断プロセスにおける熱流動的側面

村松 壽晴

Muramatsu, Toshiharu

レーザー加工プロセスを数値解析的に評価できるようにするため、汎用多次元熱流動解析コードSPLICEを開発した。SPLICEコードは、非圧縮性流体を仮定したうえで、運動量,エネルギー,質量の各保存式を差分離散系で求解する。SPLICEコードをレーザー溶接及び切断の各プロセスの数値解析評価に適用し、熱流動現象の物理モデリングが特に重要となることを確認した。

A general-purpose three-dimensional thermohydraulics numerical simulation code SPLICE was developed at JAEA (Japan Atomic Energy Agency) and designed to deal with gas-liquid-solid consolidated incompressible viscous flows with a phase change process in various laser applications, such as welding, piercing, drilling, cutting, etc. The code solves mass, momentum and energy conservation equations simultaneously in a finite difference form to evaluate various complex phenomena, such as a laser light-material interaction, liquid metal thermohydraulics in welded pond with a mushy zone, residual stress characteristics in welding processes, etc. Applications of the SPLICE code reveal considerable thermohydraulic aspects in the laser welding and cutting processes. The result obtained in this work is very encouraging in the sense that the SPLICE code would be used as one of the efficient tools for simulating the complex phenomena related to the laser welding and cutting processes.