DYNAMICAL SIMULATION AND EXPERIMENTAL STUDY ON LASER PEEN FORMING OF 6061-T6 ALUMINUM ALLOY PLATE

摘要

Laser peen forming (LPF) is an emerging modern process of metal plate bending. It uses laser-induced shock wave pressure to induce unbalanced residual stress field in the materials, the moment of the residual stress causes the plate to develop plastic bending deformation. After the process of LPF is introduced, a model for laser shock wave loading is presented, and the process of LPF and distribution of residual stresses fields are dynamical simulated by using FEM code ABAQUS. The relationship among the size of residual stress and deformation with laser peening time, peening tracks, coverage rate and surface topography are discussed. The experiments of laser peen forming for 6061-T6 aluminium alloy Plate were carried out with high power pulsed Nd:Glass laser system, some typical deformed shape of plate were obtained, good agreement between the experimental and numerical results were achieved. The results indicate that the track of laser peening is the key factor to influence the shape of plate. With the aid of simulation technique, laser process parameters can be optimized and the deformation contour for LPF process can be predicted.