Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
G.N. Labeas ∗
Laboratory of Technology and Strength of Materials, Department of Mechanical Engineering and Aeronautics,
University of Patras, Rion 26500, Greece
a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t
Article history: The laser beam forming (LBF) process uses the energy of relatively high-powered lasers
Received 13 July 2007 to cause permanent deformations of components, through the local introduction of ther-
Received in revised form mal stresses. LBF of aluminium material is a process, complex and sensitive, due to the
14 November 2007 complicated physical phenomena taking place during laser processing. Therefore, defini-
Accepted 20 December 2007 tion of optimal process parameters, such as laser power and processing velocity, which
will result to desired bending patterns, as well as investigation of forming limits of various
components require significant experimental effort. Herein, numerical simulation of LBF
Keywords: process is used to provide partial solution to the problem, by developing a local Finite Ele-
Laser beam forming ment simulation model, capable to predict temperature fields and deformation shapes of
Bending laser beam-treated aluminium specimens. The numerical algorithm is based on a non-linear
Aluminium three-dimensional transient thermal–structural analysis, temperature-dependent thermal
Finite Element and mechanical material properties and a laser beam heat flux model. The developed model
Thermal–structural analysis is validated through the comparison of numerically predicted distribution of temperatures
Local three-dimensional model and bending angles to corresponding experimental data of single and multiple laser beam
passes. The validated model is then used to define optimal process parameters for the laser
forming process of aluminium panels.
© 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
∗
Tel.: +30 2610991027; fax: +30 2610997190.
E-mail address: labeas@mech.upatras.gr.
0924-0136/$ – see front matter © 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.jmatprotec.2007.12.098
j o u r n a l o f m a t e r i a l s p r o c e s s i n g t e c h n o l o g y 2 0 7 ( 2 0 0 8 ) 248–257 249
forming process more difficult and complex, as compared to al., 2001; Hu et al., 2001; Geiger et al., 2004; Welsink, 2005).
its application to steel forming. In Chan and Liang (2000), Merklein et al. (2001) and Welsink
During laser forming, the irradiated material is formed (2005), experimental investigations concerning bending angle
under the action of local plastic strains induced by laser as a function of the laser parameters, as well as, effects on
heating of the material, instead of the action of mechanical material microstructure are presented. In Hu et al. (2001)
forces and moments applied by the common sheet bending experimental investigation and limited Finite Element sim-
techniques. The local nature of laser irradiation yields high ulations concerning temperature distribution and bending
temperature gradients between the irradiated surface and angle during laser beam forming process of steels and a non-
the neighboring material. The high temperature gradients, specified aluminium alloy were presented. In Geiger et al.
force the material to expand non-uniformly, which results (2004) only thermal FE simulations are performed for investi-
in irregular thermal expansion between the target and lower gation of the temperature distribution through the thickness
surface. As a result the specimen initially bends negatively, of aluminium alloy sheets for automotive applications.
as viewed from the laser beam. The non-uniform expan- In the present investigation a local three-dimensional
sion of the material leads to non-uniform thermal stresses, Finite Element model for simulation of the laser forming
which result to plastic deformation at locations where thermal process of aluminium parts is developed. Non-linear ther-
stresses exceed the material’s yield point. During cooling, the mal and mechanical analyses are consequently performed,
upper material layers shrink more than the bottom, resulting using temperature-dependent thermal and mechanical mate-
in permanent specimen bending towards the laser beam. rial properties. The laser beam is modelled as a step-wise
From the above short description, it is obvious that the moving heat source with Gaussian distribution of heat flux,
laser forming process comprises many simultaneous physical as proposed in Hu et al. (2002). The simulation model pre-
mechanisms and is affected by several process and mate- dictions for different laser beam forming conditions (power
rial parameters. The most important parameters are the laser and speed), material types, specimen thickness and number
scanning path, the heating conditions including laser power of passes (multiple passes) are compared to the corresponding
and type, the scanning velocity, the material thermal param- experimental results of Welsink (2005). Both results correlate
eters emissivity and conductivity, as well as, the material well, indicating the capability of the developed model in the
coefficient of thermal expansion. successful prediction of the transient temperature distribu-
The laser forming technique has been extensively inves- tion and the resulting bending angle. Consequently, the model
tigated during the recent years. Numerical and experimental applicability is demonstrated through the prediction of the
investigations have been carried out to better comprehend the optimal forming parameters, i.e. laser power and speed for
mechanisms and the effects of the control parameters on, for two types of aluminium material panels and three different
example, bending angle and mechanical behaviour. Most of thicknesses.
the investigations are mainly limited to steel applications, e.g.
Thomson and Pridham (1998), Kyrsanidi et al. (2000), Hennige
2. Description of the numerical simulation
(2000), Cheng and Lin (2001), Hu et al. (2002), Shichun and
model development
Zhong (2002), Zhang et al. (2004), Zhang and Michaleris (2004),
Chen et al. (2004) and Hsieh and Lin (2004). More specifically
in Thomson and Pridham (1998), Hennige (2000) and Chen et 2.1. Overview of the simulation approach
al. (2004) deal with process development, process parametric
investigations and optimization, in Kyrsanidi et al. (2000) and The experimental set-up of a typical laser forming process is
Cheng and Lin (2001) refer to simplified analytical solutions, presented in Fig. 1. Fixation plates are used to prevent twisting
while Zhang and Michaleris (2004) focuses to the comparison of the specimen during the forming process. The specimen
of Eulerian and Lagrangian approaches to LBF problem. In Hu is placed directly on ceramic strokes to prevent the warmth
et al. (2002), Shichun and Zhong (2002), Zhang et al. (2004)
and Hsieh and Lin (2004) different thermo-mechanical sim-
ulations are presented, which have some similarities to the
presently developed model. However apart from the difference
in investigated target material, which is steel in Hu et al. (2002),
Shichun and Zhong (2002), Zhang et al. (2004) and Hsieh and
Lin (2004), other key differences also exist; in Hu et al. (2002)
the investigated sheet forming mechanism is buckling and not
bending; in Shichun and Zhong (2002) mechanical results are
presented, based on a handling technique for the transitional
zone lying between the elastic and plastic material regions;
in Zhang et al. (2004) the focus is placed on the definition of
minimum discretization requirements of LBF Finite Element
models; in Hsieh and Lin (2004) the laser source comprises a
single pulse and not a continuous heat source scanning the
metal sheet.
Existing investigations referring to aluminium alloys are Fig. 1 – Overview of Laser Beam Forming experimental
still small in number (i.e., Chan and Liang, 2000; Merklein et set-up.
250 j o u r n a l o f m a t e r i a l s p r o c e s s i n g t e c h n o l o g y 2 0 7 ( 2 0 0 8 ) 248–257
drain of the laser-beamed specimen towards the contacting material properties are introduced in the thermal analysis.
materials. The Nd-Yag laser beam is attached in a movable The results of the thermal analysis, i.e. the transient tem-
frame, capable to follow the desired forming pattern. perature distribution of all loading steps, become the input
During the laser forming process the work-piece is heated to the consequent transient mechanical analysis. The tem-
very locally. The thermal expansion of the heated section is perature dependency of the material mechanical properties
restrained by the surrounding cooler material, leading to gen- and proper mechanical boundary conditions are introduced
eration of compressive stresses. All over the heating period, in the transient mechanical analysis, which results in the cal-
the yield stress of the heated material volumes is reduced; culation of all mechanical magnitudes of interest, such as,
as a result the developed compressive stresses lead to per- residual stresses, plastic strains and distortion distributions
manent compressive plastic strains in the material volumes in the work-piece volume.
that have exceeded the yield stress limit. As the laser beam
moves forward, the material volumes behind the beam start 2.2. Finite Element modelling
cooling down with simultaneous non-uniform lateral shorten-
ing by thermal contraction, which causes bending towards the Three-dimensional (3D) analyses are performed for both the
laser system. The above mechanism involves many interre- thermal and mechanical problems. The reason for a 3D ther-
lated non-linear physical phenomena, such as, high-gradient mal analysis is the need to accurately calculate the high
temperature flow, high stress/large strain development and temperature gradients through the specimen thickness, aris-
abrupt change of material thermal and mechanical proper- ing from the laser beam rapid heating and the consequent
ties, which make the simulation of the laser forming process sudden cooling. The reliable calculation of these temperature
complex and difficult. profiles is very important, as they dominate the local ther-
In the present investigation, a simulation model of the laser mal expansion and contraction of the laser-affected volumes,
beam forming process is developed by means of a coupled which control the amount of plastic deformation and plate
transient thermal–structural analysis. For the numerical anal- bending. For the thermal analysis the element type ‘SOLID 70’
ysis, the Finite Element code ‘ANSYS’ (ANSYS, 2003) is used. An is used, which is an eight-node, three-dimensional thermal
overview of the simulation methodology and its major steps solid with thermal conduction and convection capabilities. For
are presented in the flow chart of Fig. 2. the mechanical analysis the element type ‘SOLID 45’ is used,
A transient thermal analysis of the laser heating/cooling which is an eight-node, three-dimensional structural solid,
process is initially conducted. The geometry of the speci- fully compatible to the ‘SOLID 70’ thermal element, having
men is modelled and a finite element mesh is generated. elastic–plastic non-linear material capability.
Basic parts of the thermal analysis include the specifica- The basic specimen geometry investigated in the present
tion of the heat source characteristics, the development of analysis is a 150 mm × 100 mm rectangular plate of variable
a heat source model, the definition of the irradiation passes thickness. The parametric FE mesh, presented in Fig. 3, is
(thermal load steps) and the introduction of the thermal generated after the identification of the critical component
boundary conditions in the form of heat loss by conduc- volumes; critical volumes are considered those where highly
tion and free convection from the work-piece areas to the increased temperature and strain fields occur during forming,
surrounding environment. Temperature-dependent thermal such as, the material volumes around the laser beam path
Fig. 3 – FE mesh of the entire specimen investigated (left) and FE mesh detail of the half symmetric part where critical
locations are illustrated (right).
and the heat-affected zone. These volumes are empirically ual increase of the element size from the forming line to the
estimated to extend in a zone of width equal to five times boundaries of the component, as shown in Fig. 3.
the laser beam diameter. A dense mesh with average element The investigated specimens are made of 6013-T4 and 2024-
size two thousand times smaller than the laser beam diame- T351 aluminium alloys, as these two alloy types have recently
ter is selected for the above critical areas, in order to enable attracted considerable attention for producing complex-
proper introduction of the laser heat distribution, achieve good shaped aeronautic and automotive components. The material
accuracy of calculated temperature, stress and strain values, surface finish, which is very important as it strongly affects the
as well as to ensure convergence of the solution at reason- laser heat absorption coefficient, is the rolling condition for
able computing times. Concerning the through-the-thickness 2024-T351 material and chemical milling for 6013-T4 material.
discretization, it was found after some FE mesh parametric The temperature-dependent thermal and mechanical mate-
convergence studies, that at least eight elements are required rial properties of 2024-T351 aluminium alloy, which are used
for a proper representation of the high temperature gradients. in the current numerical simulation, are presented in Fig. 4,
The non-critical component volumes are meshed by a grad- as taken from Shi et al. (2003).
Fig. 4 – Temperature-dependent mechanical (a) and thermal (b) material properties of Al 2024-T351.
252 j o u r n a l o f m a t e r i a l s p r o c e s s i n g t e c h n o l o g y 2 0 7 ( 2 0 0 8 ) 248–257
2.3. Laser beam source model rolled 2024-T351 material, the coefficient n is around 0.22–0.24,
while for the chemically milled 6013-T4, the coefficient n takes
The heat input to the work-piece essentially depends on the values between 0.10 and 0.13. The shape parameter c of Eq.
laser beam energy supplied and the material surface absorp- (1) takes values between 1 and 3 and controls the maximum
tion capability. In order to quantify the heat flux distribution value of the heat flux at the centre of the laser beam. A para-
towards the material surface, a laser beam source model is metric study for the shape parameter c value has shown a
required. In the present analysis the laser beam is assumed to small effect to the calculated bending angle results for the
introduce a three-dimensional Gaussian heat flux distribution 5 mm diameter laser beam which is currently applied. Fur-
on the plate surface, as proposed in Hu et al. (2002) and pre- thermore, parametric studies investigating the influence of
sented in Fig. 5(a) and (b). The laser beam moves continuously the laser absorption coefficient n on the bending angle have
with velocity u along the forming path, however in the simu- shown a significant influence of the value of n on the temper-
lation, the introduced heat flux is assumed to move step-wise ature history and consequently on the formed shape. These
at a step p, indicated in Fig. 5(a). two observations indicate that most important for the laser
The surface heat flux distribution is computed according forming simulation is the amount of the total thermal energy
to the formula: introduced in the local area of the formed part, which should
be distributed according to a Gaussian function, however its
cnP 2
+(y/r0 )2 ))
Q(x, y) = e(−c((x/r0 ) (1) peak value, which is controlled by the value of the coefficient
r02 c is rather secondary. In all presented results hereafter, c is 3.
The heat flux distribution is implemented into the FE code by
where n is the laser absorption coefficient of the irradiated
means of a FORTRAN subroutine.
surface, P is the laser beam power, r0 is the laser beam radius
equal to 2.5 mm for all investigated cases, c is a shape parame-
2.4. Thermal and structural Finite Element solution
ter of the heat-flux distribution and x, y and z are the Cartesian
coordinates.
During the thermal analysis the calculation of nodal temper-
The laser absorption coefficient n of an irradiated surface
atures and their dependency on time is performed by solving
depends mainly on material type, surface treatment, color
the non-linear heat-transfer Eq. (2):
and roughness. It has been shown in Welsink (2005), that for
kc Nu
qc = (T − Ta ) (3)
Lc
2750 0.6 10 1
2024-T351 17.5 5 2
1000
17.5 1.5 3
Fig. 8 – Predicted temperature distribution plots at four time intervals during LBF simulation (case no. 4).
j o u r n a l o f m a t e r i a l s p r o c e s s i n g t e c h n o l o g y 2 0 7 ( 2 0 0 8 ) 248–257 255
Fig. 9 – Sequence of the successive LBF passes for the multi-pass tests (dimensions in mm) and illustration of the bending
angle definition (upper left corner).
ing numerical results, as calculated by the current simulation values. Taking into account the remark of an almost linear
model. relation between number of passes and total bending angle,
It may be observed from Table 2, that the bending angle for each investigated case a theoretical single pass value is
increases with decreasing thickness, or by an increase in laser extracted as the average of the five pass experimental value
power or scanning speed. For the cases of multiple-pass LBF, and included in Table 2 (in parenthesis); in such a way, a much
it can be concluded mainly from the simulations, but also better correlation between the experimentally measured and
from the experimental results, that the subsequent passes numerically calculated single pass bending angle values can
lead to an almost linear increase of the bending angle. The be reached. The good correlation of the multi-pass results
maximum deviations between experimentally measured and indicates the capability of the simulation algorithm in the pre-
numerically calculated bending angle values does not exceed diction of the bending angle for different materials, various
28%, 14% and 10% for a single laser pass, three passes and five forming powers and forming velocities.
passes, respectively. The higher deviations refer to the sin-
gle laser beam pass treatments; these deviations arise from
difficulties in the precise experimental definition of the bend- 4. Definition of optimal forming
ing angle, which, due to their low values (even close to zero parameters
for high thickness and low laser power) are significantly influ-
enced by secondary effects, such as non-uniform bending and Optimal forming parameters are those which lead to the
warping, resulting to errors of the experimental single pass desired bending angle at the lower laser power and higher
Fig. 10 – Predicted vertical displacement plots at four time intervals of the LBF simulation (case no. 3).
256 j o u r n a l o f m a t e r i a l s p r o c e s s i n g t e c h n o l o g y 2 0 7 ( 2 0 0 8 ) 248–257
Experimental Simulation
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Cheng, P.J., Lin, S.C., 2001. An analytical model to estimate angle
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as well as, predicting temperature distributions and bending technology—an idea and the way of implementation. J. Mater.
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shape of LBF aluminium components has been presented. All
Hennige, Th., 2000. Development of irradiation strategies for
the major physical phenomena of the heating and cooling 3D-laser forming. J. Mater. Process. Technol. 103, 102–108.
stages of the LBF process are simulated through a non-linear Hsieh, H.-S., Lin, J., 2004. Thermal–mechanical analysis on the
thermal–structural analysis. The developed model consid- transient deformation during pulsed laser forming. Int. J.
ers temperature-dependent thermal and mechanical material Mach. Tools Manuf. 44, 191–199.
properties and a Gaussian moving heat flux source applied on Hu, Z., Labudovic, M., Wang, H., Kovacevic, R., 2001. Computer
simulation and experimental investigation of sheet metal
the specimen external surface.
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The model is capable of predicting temperature distri-
41, 589–607.
butions and final bending angles in good agreement to Hu, Z., Kovacevic, R., Labudovic, M., 2002. Experimental and
experimental data. The simulation algorithm is applied in numerical modeling of buckling instability of laser sheet
the definition of optimum forming parameters for 6013-T4 forming. Int. J. Mach. Tools Manuf. 42, 1427–1439.
and 2024-T351 components. It is shown that increasing laser Kyrsanidi, A.K., Kermanidis, T.B., Pantelakis, S.G., 2000. An
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Acknowledgements
Shi, Q.-Y., Dickerson, T., Shercliff, H.R., 2003. Thermo-mechanical
FE modeling of friction stir welding of Al 2024 including tool
Part of this work was performed in the frame of the European loads. In: Proceedings of the International Conference on
Research Programme “Economic Advanced Shaping Processes Friction Stir Welding, Park city, Utah, 14–16 May.
for Integral Structures” (EcoShape). The financial support of Shichun, W., Zhong, J, 2002. FEM simulation of the deformation
the European Union under contract AST3-CT-2003-502884 is field during the laser forming of sheet metal. J. Mater. Process.
Technol. 121, 269–272.
gratefully acknowledged. The forming experiments were con-
Thomson, G., Pridham, M., 1998. Improvements to laser forming
ducted by EADS Corporate Research Center Germany (EADS-G)
through process control refinements. Opt. Laser Technol. 30,
and the Institute for Machine Tools and Industrial Manage- 141–146.
ment (IWB) of the Technical University of Munich, in the frame Welsink, M., 2005. Planning, realizing and analyzing the
of research activities of the above referred project. experiences of Laser Beam Forming. Diploma thesis.
Inholland University, School of Technology, Department of
Aerospace Technology, Haarlem, The Netherlands.
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