Experimental and simulation studies on laser conduction welding of AA5083 aluminium alloys

In this paper, a three-dimensional numerical model was developed to study laser welding in an aluminium alloy (AA5083). The CFD model was used to solve the governing equations of conservation of mass, momentum and energy, so as to obtain the morphology, velocity field and temperature field of the melted zone in steady state. The predicted dimensions of the weld pool agreed well with experimental results obtained on laser conduction welding with a (CW) high power diode laser. The study allowed to determine the effect of different surface treatment (sandblasting, black painting) on the laser absorptivity of the alloy and analyze the heat transfer mechanism within the weld pool.