Thermal characteristics of region surrounding laser welding keyhole

This paper investigates the thermal characteristics of region surrounding laser welding keyhole. The thermal characteristics of region surrounding laser keyhole play an important role on the mechanical properties after welding. The welding keyhole produced by laser welding is assumed to be a paraboloid of revolution. The laser beam with Gaussian distribution of intensity irradiates on the keyhole. Considering the phase change at solid-liquid interface, this study utilized the finite difference method to numerically calculate the thermal fields in the solid and liquid region surrounding laser welding keyhole.