Thermal processes of a powder particle in coaxial laser cladding

Abstract

This paper presents a numerical analysis of the heating, melting and evaporation processes of a single spherical powder particle when irradiated by a CO 2 laser beam in coaxial laser cladding. The power particle has a size ranging from 20 to 200 μm and the intensity of the laser has been varied from 500 to 3000 W . The laser energy, initial powder velocity and size have been shown to have important effects on the temperature profile of the powder stream. It has also been shown that high powder evaporation due to high power laser radiation may induce significant loss in the powder particle mass, to as much as 25% of the initial size at certain conditions in the simulation.