Study on the laser irradiation effects on carbon fiber reinforced resin composite subjected to tangential gas flow loading

Abstract

The irradiation effects of 976nm continuous-wave laser on carbon fiber reinforced E-51 resin composite is studied experimentally, with a 0.4Ma tangential airflow or 0.4Ma tangential nitrogen gas flow on the target surface. In order to simulate the thermal response of fiber reinforced resin composite materials subjected to combined laser and tangential gas flow loading, a three-dimensional thermal response model of resin composite materials is developed. In the model, the thermal decomposition of resin is described by a multi-step model. The motion of the decomposition gas is assumed to be one-dimensional, for the case that the laser spot is significantly larger than the thickness of the sample. According the above assumption, the flow of the decomposition gas is considered in the three-dimensional model without introducing any mechanical quantities. The influences of the tangential gas flow, the outflow of the thermal decomposition gas and the ablation（including phase change ablation or oxidative ablation）of the surface material on the laser irradiation effects are included in the surface boundary conditions. The three-dimensional thermal response model is calculated numerically by use of the modified smooth particle hydrodynamics (MSPH) method which is coded with FORTRAN. The model is tested by experimentally measuring the temperature profiles during carbon fiber reinforced E-51 resin composite subjected to combined laser and tangential gas flow. The predicted temperature profiles are in good agreement with experimental temperatures obtained using thermocouples.