Finite Element Simulation ForThermal Analysis In Laser Forming Of D36 Ship Building Steel

The laser bending process is one of the advanced bending processes which can be achieved by elasto-plastic deformation through the local introduction of thermal stresses. It is a thermo-mechanical process in which a laser heat source of suitable power is used for bending the material rather than any external force. In this work, sequential thermal analysis is carried out for SOLID70 element by using ANSYS. The deformation of a sheet, subjected to an irradiation, has been studied through a sequentially coupled thermo-mechanical elasto-plastic simulation by using the finite element model (FEM). D36 shipbuilding steel sheet has been taken as the work-piece material for the analysis. The thermal effects due to heat input into the work piece are analyzed which includes temperature distribution, thermal flux distribution, thermal gradient distribution and variation of thermal properties with time.Keywords: Laser beam forming, Gaussian distribution, FEM