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Simulation of laser brazing of sheet panels and parametric studies of thermally-induced distortion reduction

2020; Elsevier BV; Volume: 60; Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/j.jmapro.2020.10.030

2212-4616

Ming Lou, Wayne Cai, Jun Huang, Hui-Ping Wang, Yongbing Li, Blair E. Carlson, Michael Poss,

Laser Material Processing Techniques

Laser brazing has recently become a preferred process for the joining of thin-gauge sheet metal for outer closures in automotive body structures. One of the key concerns is the very small and often hard-to-predict surface distortions resulting from the transient and high-powered laser heat input. In this study, we established an efficient shell-element-based sequential thermal-structural finite element simulation procedure to predict the laser-brazing-induced surface distortion. The procedure was experimentally validated via both temperature and distortion measurements in laser brazing of two 0.65 mm thick L-shape steel plates. Following the established procedure, a series of simulation cases were carried out to parametrically study the effects of laser beam offset, clamping conditions and trailing cooling on the predicted distortions. It was found that strong fixturing and trailing cooling can effectively reduce brazing-induced distortion.