A model for laser hole drilling in metals (Q1913794)

A direct computer simulation technique is developed to analyze quantitatively the influence of the fluid flow and heat transfer in the transient development of a laser drilled hole in a turbine airfoil material, where the material removal is effected by vaporization and melt ejection. The coupled conduction heat transfer in the solid and the advection-diffusion heat transfer in the liquid metal, the fluid dynamics of melt expulsion and the tracking of solid-liquid and liquid-vapor interfaces have been mathematically modeled for the two-dimensional axisymmetric case. The donor-acceptor cell method using the volume of fluid approach is used to solve the complex problem, and a versatile numerical code has been developed.