The overriding goal of process simulation is to represent the fundamental physical processes in laser material processing in a mathematically correct and consistent manner. According to the principles of mass, momentum and energy conservation, a simulation software has been designed and continuously developed, which enables the flexible and meaningful simulation of all laser-based manufacturing processes. This results in the unique opportunity to analyze occurring phenomena in detail and to build up a fundamental understanding of the process. This forms the basic framework for knowledge-based process optimization of individual processes, such as:

  • Laser beam welding
  • Laser drilling
  • Laser beam cutting
  • laser beam brazing
  • pulsed laser beam ablation with any pulse shape and duration
  • selective laser melting
  • laser buildup welding
  • high-speed buildup welding
  • electron beam welding
Quader mit Eindringloch des Laserstrahls; Form entspricht abgestumpftem Kegel (Grundfläche an Oberfläche des Quaders). Im Kegel fadenartige Strömungsmuster;

© TU Wien

Simulation result: vapor capillary and resulting molten pool movement during laser beam welding

Schematische Darstellungen von Phänomenen der Strahl-Stoff-Wechselwirkung; genauere Beschreibung folgt;

© TU Wien

Fundamental physical mechanisms in the simulation of laser-based manufacturing processes

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Spiking & pore formation during keyhole laser welding of aluminum

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Laser pulse ablation of Si wafer

The beam-substance interaction and the resulting effects, such as phase transformations and the flow and thermodynamic processes, are described with the help of software that was developed based on a multiphase solver of the open source CFD package OpenFOAM. Through this fundamental approach and integration with existing and validated finite volume modeling, processes can be studied on very broad time and size scales, from femtosecond pulses to longer continuous wave welding processes and from single powder particles to component scale in additive manufacturing. A coupling with the discrete element method offers additional possibilities to simulate the dynamics of single powder particles, the beam propagation through single photon bunches and resulting ray-tracing, and even modeling of recrystallization in the solidification process.

The research group Process Simulation, similar to the area of process technology, is divided between basic scientific research and applied research. The focus is always on the fundamental physically correct description and the resulting understanding of the complex relationship between process parameters and processing results in order to derive suitable optimization approaches. For this purpose, the research group provides both the developed tools and the accumulated know-how to successfully handle projects and cooperations. Furthermore, commercial software packages such as Ansys and Abaqus can be used depending on the requirements of the specific problem.

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CFD simulation vs. experiment of LBW

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Simulation of laser photon packages with OpenFOAM (optical paths)

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Projects

Thanks to the versatile simulation software, the applications range from basic research to applied research, which we carry out together with various partners. You can find more details about our work on the Projects subpage.