Thermal stresses due to time exponentially decaying laser pulse: Elasto-plastic wave propagations

In the present study, thermal stress developed in the substrate material, which is subjected to a laser heating pulse is formulated. The closed form solutions for the temperature and stress fields due to time exponentially decaying laser pulse are presented. The Laplace transformation method is employed when deriving the governing equations. The elastic and plastic propagation of the stress waves are considered and the depth of the plastic zone is predicted. In order to account for the recoil pressure generated during the evaporation process, stress boundary at the free surface of the workpiece is considered. It is found that the magnitude of stress wave, due to stress boundary at the surface, well exceeds the elastic limit of the substrate material. Once the magnitude of the recoil pressure reduces considerably, elastic wave is generated. This occurs after t*=0.032. Since the elastic wave propagates faster than the plastic wave, both waves meet at some depth below the surface. This, in turn, defines the depth of the plastic zone. In the present case, the depth of elastic zone extends to about x*=9.2 below the surface. The magnitude of the stress wave generated due to temperature gradient is less than the yield strength of the substrate material; in which case, its magnitude decreases with increasing depth from the surface.