Thermohydraulic aspects in laser welding and cutting processes

A general-purpose three-dimensional thermohydraulics numerical simulation code SPLICE was developed at JAEA (Japan Atomic Energy Agency) and designed to deal with gas-liquid-solid consolidated incompressible viscous flows with a phase change process in various laser applications, such as welding, piercing, drilling, cutting, etc. The code solves mass, momentum and energy conservation equations simultaneously in a finite difference form to evaluate various complex phenomena, such as a laser light-material interaction, liquid metal thermohydraulics in welded pond with a mushy zone, residual stress characteristics in welding processes, etc. Applications of the SPLICE code reveal considerable thermohydraulic aspects in the laser welding and cutting processes. The result obtained in this work is very encouraging in the sense that the SPLICE code would be used as one of the efficient tools for simulating the complex phenomena related to the laser welding and cutting processes.