Stress modeling of the laser drilling process in carbon steel

A laser machining process has been applied in many manufacturing fields and it provides an excellent energy control for treating materials. However, a heat effect during laser machining can deteriorate material properties. Specifically, a thermally induced stress can be a problem in laser-machined structures on a metal surface. In this study, temperature and stress on cold-rolled carbon steel sheet machined with laser hole drilling were explored in an experimental approach and a numerical method. Stresses by temperature gradients inside the materials were generated in fast cooling. The stresses were measured by using a hole-drilling method and the material properties of carbon steel (SCP1-S) were obtained in the experiment. It was found that the stress predicted from the numerical analysis was in agreement with the stresses measured by using the hole-drilling method. The analysis can be applied for evaluating structure characteristics machined with a laser.