Numerical simulation of laser bending of AISI 304 plate with a rectangular cut out

Abstract

This paper presents investigation of laser bending of AISI 304 plate having a rectangular cut out at its middle via process modeling by finite element method and statistical techniques. The objective is to study the effects of process and geometric parameters on thermal and deformation fields. Correlations are developed, with satisfactory accuracy, to predict maximum temperature and bending angle in the form of second order equations using response surface methodology. Artificial Neural Network models are also developed to predict maximum temperature and bending angle. Results indicate that maximum temperature and bending angle increases with laser power and decreases with increase in scanning speed. Moreover, bending angle decreases with increase in cut out dimension along laser scanning path due to the reduced interaction time between the work piece and the laser beam. Predictions from regression models and neural network models are compared with simulation results and performance of both approaches are found to be satisfactory.

Keywords: laser bending; process modeling; bending angle; response surface models