Picosecond Laser Shock Micro-Forming of Stainless Steel: Influence of High-Repetition Pulses on Thermal Effects

Abstract

A study of the peen forming of thin stainless steel metal foils (50 μm thick) using a solid-state ps-pulsed laser, emitting at a wavelength of 1064 nm was conducted. The pitch distance between consecutive laser pulses was kept constant by tuning the laser repetition rate from 0.4 to 10 kHz, and subsequently the scanning speed. The induced bending angle and the radius of curvature were used to measure the effect of the treatment. Their dependence on the pulse energy, the treated area, the distance between lines, and the laser repetition rate was studied. High repetition rates do not allow the sample to cool down, affecting the bending to the point of being negligible. An FEM simulation and experiments were carried out to prove that the increase in temperature due to high repetition rate can relax the stresses induced by laser peen treatment, thus preventing bending in the sample.

Analytical Models for the Prediction of Deformation in Laser Shock Bulging

“…In the past several years, a lot of experimental and numerical studies have been conducted to investigate the forming mechanism [4][5][6][7], microstructure [8][9][10][11][12], mechanical properties [8,12], and explore the new applications [13][14][15][16]. But only a few studies have focused on the theoretical analysis of LSF.…”