Time-dependent 3-D modelling of laser surface heating for the hardening of metallic materials

A numerical code for the time-dependent three-dimensional modelling of the laser surface heating for the hardening of metallic materials has been developed by the authors. The temperature-dependence of the thermal properties of the material (stainless steel) is taken into account in the frame of a heating process that doesn't lead to material melting or evaporation. Calculations have been carried out for various dimensions of the parallelepiped-shaped and of the square-shaped spot of the laser beam, as well as for different scanning velocity and for different levels of the laser source power. Various patterns of the laser spot path have also been studied, including a single-pass hardening pattern, a double-pass hardening pattern with and without overlapping, multiple discontinuous and continuous hardening patterns and spiral hardening patterns. The presented results show how the proposed model can be usefully employed in the prediction of the time-evolution of temperature distribution which arises in the workpiece as a consequence of the laser-workpiece interaction under operating conditions typically encountered in industrial applications of the laser hardening process.