FEM analysis for laser bending process of DP980 steel sheet

Abstract

Laser bending of metal sheet is a complex process that is achieved by introducing thermal stress into a metal sheet through irradiation using a defocused laser beam. In a single scanning process, it is important to know the effects of the engineering parameters on the final bending angle, such as the laser power, laser beam diameter, and scanning speed. Furthermore, it is important to investigate the effect of the scanning direction in a multiple scanning process. In this paper, FEM analyses for a laser bending process of DP980 high strength steel sheet under different laser powers, scanning speeds, line energies, and scanning directions are performed to analyze the effects of the engineering parameters and the scanning direction on the final bending angle. The results indicate that the final bending angle of a DP980 steel sheet increases in a linear increase fashion with the increase of the line energy in the single scanning process; it also increases when the scanning direction is changed time by time in the multiple scanning process.