Determination of energy coupling to material in laser welding by a novel “sandwich” method

A mathematical energy coupling model was developed to analyze the light transmission in the keyhole and energy distribution on the keyhole wall. The main characteristics of the model include: 1) a prototype of the keyhole and the inverse Bremsstrahlung absorption coefficient in the keyhole plasma are obtained from the experiments; 2) instead of using a parallel incident beam, a focused laser beam with real Gaussian intensity distribution is implemented; 3) both Fresnel absorption and inverse Bremsstrahlung absorption during multiple reflections are considered. The calculation results show that the distribution of absorbed laser intensity by the keyhole wall is not uniform. The maximum laser energy is absorbed by the bottom of the keyhole, although no rays irradiate directly onto the bottom. According to analysis of beam focusing characteristics, the location of the focal plane plays a more important role in the laser energy absorption by the front wall than by the rear wall.