Laser forming is a technique consisting in the design and the construction of complex metallic work pieces with special shapes difficult to achieve with the conventional techniques. By using lasers, the main advantage of the process is that it is contactless and does not require any external force. It offers also more flexibility for a lower price. This kind of processing interests the industries that use the stamping or other costly ways for prototypes such as in the aero-spatial, automotive, naval and microelectronics industries. The analytical modeling of laser forming process is often complex or impossible to achieve, since the dimensions and the mechanical properties change with the time and in the space. Therefore, the numerical approach is more suitable for laser forming modeling. Our numerical study is divided into two models, the first one is a purely thermal treatment which allows the determination of the temperature field produced by a laser pass, and the second one consists in the thermo-mechanical coupling treatment. The temperature field resulting from the first stage is used to calculate the stress field, the deformations and the bending angle of the plate.
Finite element simulation of 3-D laser forming by discrete section circle line heating
