Fresnel absorption of 1 μm- and 10 μm-laser beams at the keyhole wall during laser beam welding: Comparison between smooth and wavy surfaces

摘要

The angle-dependent absorption of laser beams at metal surfaces is described by the Fresnel-equations. During keyhole laser welding the essential interaction takes place at very striping angles of incidence of the order of 1-8 degrees at the front of the vapour capillary, called the keyhole. For a smooth vapour capillary, laser beams with a wavelength of about 1 μm operate in a Fresnel-regime where the absorp-tance increases with the angle of incidence at the wall, towards the weak Brewster-angle maximum. In contrast, for 10 μm-lasers high absorptance around the more pronounced Brewster-angle peak takes place. From high speed imaging keyhole surface waves were observed. Mathematical modelling of the laser-keyhole interaction demonstrates that already relatively little waviness of the melt surface at the keyhole strongly modulates the angles of incidence and in turn the Fresnel-absorption due to varying angles of incidence, soon also leading to shadow zones. Due to this local variation of the angle of incidence the absorptance tends towards the angle-averaged value, with the consequence that for 1 μm-lasers the direct absorptance and in turn the penetration depth increases, particularly at low welding speed, while for 10 μm-lasers it generally decreases.