PROCESS VELOCITY EFFECT ON MELT FILM DYNAMICS DURING LASER CUTTING OF METAL

摘要

A 3D model is developed in order to study the phenomena occurring during laser cutting of metals under gas assistance. The model allows the simulation, under normal atmospheric conditions, of the the melt film behavior while submitted to the gas jet and the laser beam. The governing hydrodynamic equations, involving the Volume of Fluid (VOF) variable conservation equation for interface tracking, are numerically solved by using Fluent CFD code. The determination of the free surface position delimiting the air and the workpiece surface allows to obtaining the dynamics of the melt film. The results for cutting velocities varying between 1 and 6 m/min, show interesting agreement with the experimental observations.