Meshfree isoparametric point interpolation method (IPIM) for evaporative laser drilling

An isoparametric point interpolation method (IPIM) has been developed to analyze evaporative laser machining. The method is based on isoparametric representation of the unknown in the local domain. It also uses a simple strong form, but shows to be powerful enough to handle highly localized boundary conditions. Solution in a typical influence domain is approximated by a polynomial function. The problem is geometrically nonlinear because the domain is not known a priori due to material removal in machining. An iterative scheme is introduced to solve the nonlinear problem. The material removal is handled by redistributing points in the domain. This renders the point distribution non-uniform same as random distribution. Three different boundary conditions considered are of essential, convection, and laser irradiation type. The numerical results show very good agreement with those by FEM and BEM.