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Modeling of tow-to-spot diameter ratio for laser cutting of single-layer carbon fiber–reinforced plastics (CFRP)

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Abstract

Carbon fiber–reinforced plastics (CFRP) is a kind of advanced composite material with resin as the matrix and carbon fiber as the reinforcing phase. Due to differences in material orientation, laser cutting of CFRP exhibits anisotropic characteristics. In order to study the influence of material anisotropy on energy conduction in laser cutting CFRP, taking single-layer CFRP as the research object, based on the heat conduction theory and the mixing rate of composite materials, the three-dimensional finite element models of single fiber arrangement with tow-to-spot (fiber tow to laser spot) diameter ratio of 1:1, 1:2, 1:5, and 1:10 are established by using the commercial software ANSYS. Through the numerical simulation of the same-direction laser cutting process, the material temperature field and cross-section temperature gradient are analyzed. The results show that with the increase of fiber arrangement density (tow-to-spot diameter ratio approaching 1:10), the width of the heat-affected zone decreases, but the maximum temperature increases, which means that the temperature gradient increases. Therefore, it is speculated that when a larger laser spot is used (tow-to-spot diameter ratio is much smaller than 1:10), CFRP can be treated as a homogeneous composite. In order to verify the effectiveness of the model, a slit aperture is used to control the tow-to-spot diameter ratio at about 1:7, and a CO2 continuous laser is used for cutting experiments. By fitting the experimental measurements with the width of the carbon fiber ablation area and heat-affected zone in the numerical simulation results, it is found that there is a logarithmic correlation between both the width and the tow-to-spot diameter ratio. There are 3.37% and 1.92% deviations between the experimental result and the theoretical value, respectively. The agreement is relatively good, which can prove the effectiveness of the model. In conclusion, the establishment of a tow-to-spot diameter ratio model reveals the response characteristics of anisotropic materials to energy input and conduction in the process of laser cutting, especially the difference of radial and axial conduction efficiency. The influence mechanism of fiber arrangement mode (mainly density in this work) on temperature field and cutting effect is clarified, which provides important theoretical support and experimental basis for the laser precision cutting method of CFRP materials.

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Data availability

The datasets used or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Code availability

Not applicable.

Abbreviations

CFRP:

Carbon fiber–reinforced plastics

HAZ:

Heat-affected zone

CW:

Continuous wave

\({\Phi }_{\mathrm{x}}\), \({\Phi }_{\mathrm{y}}\) and \({\Phi }_{\mathrm{z}}\) :

The components of heat flow \(\Phi\) in x, y, and z directions, W

\({\left({\Phi }_{x}\right)}_{x}\), \({\left({\Phi }_{y}\right)}_{y}\) and :

\({\left({\Phi }_{z}\right)}_{z}\)The values of each component at the point of (x,0,0), (0,y,0), and (0,0,z)

\(\left(\frac{\partial T}{\partial x}\right)\), \(\left(\frac{\partial T}{\partial y}\right)\) and \(\left(\frac{\partial T}{\partial z}\right)\) :

The rate of temperature change along the x-axis, y-axis, and z-axis

\(\lambda\) :

Proportional constant (the thermal conductivity of the material), W·m−1·K−1

\(A\) :

The section area, mm2

\(\rho\) :

The density of the material, g/cm3

\(c\) :

The specific heat capacity of the material, J/(kg·K)

\(T\) :

The temperature of a certain point (x, y, z) of the material at a certain moment, K

\({\lambda }_{1}\) :

The thermal conductivity of resin, W/(m·K)

\({\lambda }_{2}\) :

The thermal conductivity of carbon fiber material along the laying direction, W/(m·K)

\({V}_{1}\) :

The volume fraction

\({\Gamma }_{1}\) :

The boundary of the region (type I)

\({\Gamma }_{2}\) :

The boundary of the region (type II)

\({\Gamma }_{3}\) :

The boundary of the region (type III)

\({T}_{w}\) :

The boundary temperature of the object, K

\(n\) :

The normal vector outside the region,

\({q}_{w}\) :

The heat flow on the surface of the object, W

\(h\) :

The heat transfer coefficient, W/(m·K)

\({T}_{0}\) :

The temperature of the surrounding medium, 293 K

\(\varepsilon\) :

The thermal emissivity of the material

\(\sigma\) :

The Stefan Boltzmann constant, 5.67 × 10−8W/(m2·K4)

\(A\) :

The absorption coefficient of CFRP to laser

\({I}_{0}\) :

The power density at the center of laser beam, J/m3

\(f\left(x,y\right)\) :

The spatial distribution of continuous laser

\({r}_{0}\) :

The radius of the spot when the light intensity drops to \(1/e\) of the central part, mm

\(\left({x}_{0},{y}_{0}\right)\) :

The coordinate of the center position of the spot

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Acknowledgements

The authors also would like to thank the Key Lab of Guangdong for Modern Surface Engineering Technology and all the staff of the subject group for their patient and attentive help.

Funding

This study was supported by the GDAS (Guangdong Academy of Science) Project of Science and Technology Development (grant No. 2022GDASZH-2022010107), the National Key Research and Development Program of China (grant No. 2022YFC2406), the Guangdong Special Support Program (grant No. 2019BT02C629), and the Guangzhou Project of Science & Technology (grant No. 202007020008).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of New Materials, National Engineering Laboratory for Modern Materials Surface Engineering Technology, The Key Lab of Guangdong for Modern Surface Engineering Technology, Guangdong Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, 510651, People’s Republic of China

    Yonghao Luo, Xiaowu Zhu, Weiye Zhang, Cheng Chang, Shuohong Gao, Bingwen Lu & Xingchen Yan

  2. School of Material Science and Engineering, Shenyang University of Technology, Shenyang, 110870, People’s Republic of China

    Yonghao Luo & Weiye Zhang

  3. School of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Wenzhou University, Wenzhou, 325035, People’s Republic of China

    Xiaowu Zhu

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Contributions

All persons who have made substantial contributions to the work reported in the manuscript, including those who provided editing and writing assistance but who are not authors, are named in the “Acknowledgments” section of the manuscript and have given their written permission to be named  . All authors contributed to the study conception and design as follows:

Yonghao Luo: Conceptualization, Validation, Resources, Data Curation, Writing—Original Draft, Writing—Review and Editing, Visualization, Supervision, Project administration, Funding acquisition.

Xiaowu Zhu: Software, Formal analysis, Investigation, Data Curation, Writing—Original Draft.

Weiye Zhang: Software, Formal analysis, Writing—Review and Editing, Supervision.

Cheng Chang: Validation, Formal analysis.

Shuohong Gao: Software, Investigation.

Bingwen Lu: Resources, Funding acquisition.

Xingchen Yan: Project administration, Funding acquisition.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yonghao Luo.

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Luo, Y., Zhu, X., Zhang, W. et al. Modeling of tow-to-spot diameter ratio for laser cutting of single-layer carbon fiber–reinforced plastics (CFRP). Int J Adv Manuf Technol 127, 4439–4452 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-023-11749-8

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