Applied Thermal Engineering 62 (2014) 28e36

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Applied Thermal Engineering

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Laser cutting of triangular blanks from thick aluminum foam plate:

Thermal stress analysis and morphology
Bekir Sami Yilbas a, *, Sohail Akhtar a, Omer Keles b
a
ME Department, King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals, KFUPM Box 1913, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia
b
ME Department, Gazi University, Ankara, Turkey

h i g h l i g h t s

Temperature remains low around sharp edges.

von Mises is low at corners due to self-annealing affect.

Laser cut surfaces are free from large size asperities.

Small dross attachment is observed at kerf edges.

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Laser cutting of triangle blank from aluminum foam is carried out. Thermal stress field in the cutting
Received 18 February 2013 section is predicted using ABAQUS finite element code in line with the experimental conditions. Laser
Accepted 15 September 2013 cutting experiments are carried out prior to the model study to determine the optimum cutting pa-
Available online 26 September 2013
rameters for the quality cuts. Temperature predictions are compared with thermocouple data obtained
from the experiment. Morphological and metallurgical changes in the cut section are examined using
Keywords:
optical and scanning microscopes, energy dispersive spectroscopy, and X-ray diffraction. It is found that
Laser cutting
von Mises attains high values along the circumference of the cut edges at the onset of cooling cycle
Aluminum foam
Thermal stress
initiation. Laser cut edges are free from defects and asperities; however, locally distributed few dross
Kerf morphology attachments take place at the kerf exit.

2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction machining technologies because of precision of operation, non-

Metallic foams are used in automotive industry [1] and cooling
systems [2] because of their superior properties. In the automotive
industry, metallic foams serves as energy absorbers while in the
thermal systems, these foams provide improved heat transfer rates
in the convection environments. In addition, metallic foams are
used as sound insulators in trains [3]. Conventional machining of
aluminum foams results in asperities and defects sites in the
machined sections because of the presence of the mechanical
cutting forces. Since the foam material contains large voids, cutting
forces modify the geometric features of the voids and damage
mechanically the void edges. One of the methods minimizing the
defects sites and improve the end product quality of the machined
parts is to introduce the thermal machining using high power la-
sers. Laser machining offers advantages over the conventional
* Corresponding author. Tel.: þ966 3 860 5223; fax: þ966 3 860 2949.
E-mail address: bsyilbas@kfupm.edu.sa (B.S. Yilbas).
mechanical contact between the workpiece and the laser beam,
and high speed of operation. However, in laser cutting applications,
temperature gradient developed remains high in the vicinity of the
cutting section during the operation. This, in turn, forms high level
of thermal stresses in the cut section, which may limit the practical
applications of the machined parts. Consequently, investigation of
the laser cutting of sharp edge blanks from aluminum foam and
thermal analysis associated with laser cutting process becomes
essential.
Laser processing of materials was widely examined in the pre-
vious studies [4e6]. Laser processing of metal foams was studied by
Carcel et al. [7]. They showed that lasers could be used as an
effective tool to process the metallic foams from aluminum and
titanium alloys. Laser interaction with low density foam was
studied by Chaurasian et al. [8]. They demonstrated that laser
processing provided smooth foam surfaces in the treated regions.
Laser hole drilling into foam was examined by Yoshida et al. [9].
They showed that increasing laser pulse width increased the pile up
around the hole in single pulse drilling operation. Laser machining

1359-4311/$ e see front matter
2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2013.09.026
 B.S. Yilbas et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 62 (2014) 28e36 29

Table 1 To validate temperature predictions, two thermocouples were

Laser cutting conditions used in the experiment. used to monitor the temporal variation of surface temperature at
Cutting speed Power Frequency Nozzle gap Nozzle Focus N2 pressure the locations #1 and #3, which is 0.5 mm away from the cut edge
(cm/s) (W) (Hz) (mm) diameter setting (kPa) surface (Fig. 1). This was necessary to avoid the melting of the
(mm/min) (mm) (mm) surface of the thermocouples during the laser cutting process. The
10 1800 1500 1.5 1.5 127 600 thermocouples output was calibrated according to the previous
study [16]. The experiment was repeated nine times and the
of foams was investigated by Fujiamura et al. [10]. They presented experimental error was determined and it was estimated as about
the influence of laser power and cutting speed on the cut edge 5%. Moreover, two types error involve with the uncertainty analysis.
morphologies. Laser assisted aluminum foaming was studied by These include precision (P) and bias uncertainties (B), provided that
Kathuria et al. [11]. Their findings revealed that the foam had lower bias uncertainty is usually related to the calibration or off-set errors
density for slower processing speed which was associated with the depending on the equipment used. The total uncertainty can be
interaction time (dwell time). Laser machining of high density foam written as [17]:
materials was examined by Dorfler et al. [12]. They showed that due pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
to the high temperature involvement during the machining, Uz ¼ B2 þ P 2 (1)
metallurgical changes occurred in the region subjected to the laser
The precision uncertainty can be calculated from Ref. [17]:
irradiation. Laser processing of aluminum foam filled steel tubes
was carried out by Campana et al. [13]. They demonstrated that sx
P ¼ ta;n pffiffiffi (2)
high rate of solidification and small amount of material removal n
from the workpiece prevented the collapse of cellular structure in
the foam material. where t is the t-statistics, Sx is the sample standard deviation, a is
Although laser cutting of aluminum foam was carried out in the the degrees of freedom, and n is the sample size. The total uncer-
previous study [14], the influence of the shape of the cut sections on tainty is determined as 5%.
the thermal stress levels were left obscure. Consequently, in the
present study, laser cutting of sharp edge tailored blank from
aluminum foam plate is carried out. The triangle shape blank with 3. Thermal stress modeling
7 mm edge was cut experimentally in 5 mm thick aluminum foam.
Temperature and stress fields developed in the cut section are The heat equation incorporating solid body heating with
predicted numerically using the ABAQUS finite element code [15] in temperature-dependent conductivity and phase change (latent
line with experimental conditions. The morphological and metal- heat effects), and convection and radiation boundary conditions are
lurgical changes in the cut section are examined by incorporating considered to simulate the laser cutting process in line with the
scanning electron microscope, energy dispersive spectroscope, and experimental conditions. Since the foam material contains large
X-ray diffraction. size air cells, the continuum conservation equations are used with
the assumption of effective properties for the aluminum. The
similar approach is also incorporated in the previous studies
2. Experimental
[18,19]. In the analysis, the gas dynamics effect of the assisting gas
on the cutting process is omitted due to the complicated nature of
A CO2 laser (LC-ALPHAIII) was used to cut the workpieces. The
the gas flow behavior in the large cavities in the foam; however, it is
beam had a Gaussian intensity distribution at the irradiated surface
referred to the previous studies [20e22]. Fig. 1 shows the schematic
with a Gaussian parameter “a” of 0.0002 m. Nitrogen was used as
view of the laser straight cutting and the coordinate system.
an assisting gas. To determine the levels of the cutting parameters
The effective properties of metallic foams were presented in the
for optimum cutting conditions, several cutting tests were carried
previous studies for flow analysis and heat transfer enhancement
out. The optimum cutting conditions were identified based on the
[23,24]. The analysis was presented mainly for the open cell type
less sideways burning around the kerf edges, small dross attach-
metallic foams. However, aluminum foam tiles used in the exper-
ment at the kerf exit, and small striations at the kerf surface. It was
iment mainly consist of lotus-type porous structure. Therefore, in
observed that increasing laser power to 10% from its optimum
value, the kerf width size increases almost 22% and dross attach-
ment at the kerf exit was also observed. However, increasing laser
scanning speed 10%, irregular cuts were resulted such that the kerf
width became a wedge like shape rather than parallel sided.
Therefore, the optimum laser cutting parameters are secured prior
to simulations and they are given in Table 1.
Aluminum foam tiles were 5 mm thick and they had closed-cell
structure with the porosity of the order of 78%. JEOL JDX-3530
scanning electron microscope (SEM) was used to obtain photomi-
crographs of the cut sections. EDS analysis was carried out for
different locations at the kerf surface and the EDS data are given in
Table 2. The Bruker D8 Advance having CuKa radiation is used for
XRD analysis.

Table 2
Elemental composition at three locations on the kerf surface (wt%).

O Si Al

As received 27 9 Balance
Laser cut section 29 8 Balance Fig. 1. A schematic view of laser cut triangle blank, location of thermocouple and
coordinate system.
30 B.S. Yilbas et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 62 (2014) 28e36

the analysis, the lotus-type porous structure is considered in line

with the experiments and the values of the effective properties are
calculated incorporating the rule of mixture [18]. Therefore, the
effective properties are formulated and determined for the lotus-
type porous structure, which consists of air and aluminum mate-
rial [18]:

reff ðTÞ ¼ ð1  εÞrs ðTÞ þ εrf ðTÞ (3)

and

ð1  εÞrs ðTÞCps ðTÞ þ εrf ðTÞCpf ðTÞ

Cpeff ðTÞ ¼ (4)
ð1  εÞrs ðTÞ þ εrf ðTÞ

and

ð1  εÞrs ðTÞks ðTÞ þ εrf ðTÞkf ðTÞ

keff ðTÞ ¼ (5)
ð1  εÞrs ðTÞ þ εrf ðTÞ
Fig. 2. Temporal variation of surface temperature predicted from the present simu-
lations and obtained from the thermocouple data.
where rs(T) is the density, Cps(T) is the specific heat, and ks(T)
thermal conductivity of solid part of porous metal, and ε is the
porosity expressed by the volume ratio of pores versus the total
volume of the porous metal. The subscripts (sub) ‘eff’ is the effec-
tive, ‘s’ is the solid, and ‘f’ is the gas in the pores. 1800
t = 0.210 s
The enthalpy method is used for the change process [15] and the Top Perimeter at z = 0 m
t = 0.270 s
specific heat capacity is associated with the internal energy gain of t = 0.540 s
the substrate material, i. e. Cp ðTÞ ¼ vU=vT. The latent heat effects 1480
t = 1.210 s
are significant in the laser melting of aluminum foam material due t = 200.0 s

to phase change and must be taken into account. The equivalent

TEMPERATURE (K)

1160
latent heat (Leq ¼ Ls =1 þ ðrf =rs Þ˛ð1 þ ð˛=˛  1ÞÞ, where Leq is the
equivalent latent heat of melting and Ls is the melting heat of
aluminum) is used in terms of solidus and liquidus temperatures
840
(the lower and upper temperature bounds of the phase change
range), and the total internal energy associated with the phase
change. For temperature range in the range of the solidus and liq-
520
uidus temperatures of the aluminum foam (Tsolidus < T < Tliquidus),
the latent heat effect is presented in terms of the equivalent latent
heat (Leq). Therefore, the specific heat can be formulated as [25]:
200
0 0.0042 0.0084 0.0126 0.0168 0.021
Leq
Cpmelt ðTÞ ¼ Cpeff ðTÞ þ   DISTANCE ALONG TOP PERIMETER (m)
Tliquidus  Tsoludus
1800
where Cpmelt is the specific heat of the aluminum foam during t = 0.210 s
melting, Tliquidus is liquid temperature at phase change, and Tsolidus is Bottom Perimeter at z = 0.005 m t = 0.270 s
the solid temperature at phase change. The influence of flow field, t = 0.540 s
1480
generated in the liquid phase at the surface, on rate of melting is t = 1.210 s
t = 200.0 s
TEMPERATURE (K)

Table 3 1160
Properties of aluminum foam used in the simulations [31]. Effective density
(reff) ¼ 250 kg/m3: Latent heat ¼ 370,000 J/kg: Solidus temperature ¼ 835 K: Liq-
uidus temperature ¼ 865 K. Expansion Coefficient ¼ 2.34  105 1/K: Poisson’s
ratio ¼ 0.25: Crushable Foam Properties: Compression yield stress ratio ¼ 1, Plastic 840
passion’s ratio ¼ 0.25.

Temperature Effective Effective thermal Yield stress,

(K) specific conductivity (MPa)
520
heat (J/kg K) (W/m K)

300 870 9.07 1.0

400 920 9.16 0.8
500 970 9.09 0.65 200
600 1000 9.15 0.49 0 0.0042 0.0084 0.0126 0.0168 0.021
700 1030 9.69 0.26
800 1050 9.93 0.24 DISTANCE ALONG THE BOTTOM PERIMETER (m)
823 1050 9.93 0.12
893 1050 9.93 0.015 Fig. 3. Temperature variation along the perimeter of top and bottom edges of the cut
section for different cooling periods.
 B.S. Yilbas et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 62 (2014) 28e36
Fig. 4. Temperature counters in the triangular blank at the onset of cooling cycle initiation.
omitted due to significantly shallow re-cast layer formed at the kerf
surface.
In the heating analysis, the free convection boundary condition
is considered at the free surfaces of the foam tile, except across the
irradiated spot, which forced convection boundary condition with
h ¼ 3000 W/m2 K is assumed due to the impinging assisting gas in
line with the previous study [26]. Initially, temperature of the
aluminum foam tile is considered to be uniform and equals to the
ambient temperature (300 K).
The behavior of the metallic foam differs from that of the solid
metal; therefore, the classical plastic theory cannot be incorporated
to formulate the thermal stress behavior of the foam material.
Consequently, in the stress analysis, the two-dimensional founda-
tion model is introduced through using a mechanically based non-
local elasticity theory [27,28]; in which case, it is assumed that each
column element is acted upon by a local Winkler-like reaction force
exerted by the elastic base, contact shear forces, and volume forces
to adjacent and non-adjacent column elements. Since the volume
contrition of voids in the aluminum foam is similar to that reported
in the open literature [28], the model developed by Deshpande and
Fleck [28] is used. The model study is primarily based on the
experimental tests of aluminum foam, which has been built in the
31
finite element package ABAQUS [15]. The model assumes isotropic
hardening under tension and compression. In the present work,
three-dimensional finite element analysis is carried out using the
dynamic explicit code ABAQUS/Explicit using the crushable foam
model with isotropic hardening. The stress analysis is coupled with
the previous thermal analysis to import the thermal history during
the laser treatment process. The crushable foam plasticity model
available in ABAQUS is based on the assumption that the resulting
deformation is not recoverable instantaneously and it can be
idealized as plastic for short duration events. The contribution of
the mean stress on the yield function is realized through a material
parameter known as a shape factor. It defines the aspect ratio of the
elliptical stress. The shape factor quantitatively distinguishes the
plastic behavior of metal foams from solid metals. The yield func-
tion (F) is given by Ref. [28]:
qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
F ¼ q2 þ a2 p2  B ¼ 0 (6)
where q is the von Mises equivalent stress and p is the mean stress.
B defines the size of the yield ellipse. The variables in equation (6)
are:
32 B.S. Yilbas et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 62 (2014) 28e36
sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
1.00E+06 3 1  2 np
Top Perimeter at z = 0 m t = 0.210 s b ¼ pffiffiffi (8)
2 1 þ yp
t = 0.270 s
t = 0.540 s
8.00E+05 The plastic Poisson’s ratio, np, which is the ratio of the transverse
t = 1.210 s
to the longitudinal plastic strain under uniaxial compression, is
t = 200.0 s
vON MISES STRESS (Pa)

defined through the user defined function and it is considered to be

6.00E+05 in the range of 1 and 0.5. The upper limit np ¼ 0.5 corresponds to
an incompressible plastic flow. In the current simulation, the value
of plastic Poisson’s ratio is assumed to be 0.25.
4.00E+05 The plastic strains are defined to be normal to a family of self-
similar flow potentials parameterized by the value of the poten-
tial G [28]:
2.00E+05
vG
ε_ pl ¼ l_ (9)
vs
0.00E+00
where l_ is the nonnegative plastic flow multiplier. The hardening of
0 0.0042 0.0084 0.0126 0.0168 0.021
the foam is described through:
DISTANCE ALONG THE TOP PERIMETER (m)
 
sc ¼ sc εpl (10)
1.00E+06
Bottom Perimeter at z = 0.005 m t = 0.210 s where εpl is the equivalent plastic strain. The evolution of εpl is
t = 0.270 s assumed to be governed by the equivalent plastic work expression;
8.00E+05 t = 0.540 s i.e.
t = 1.210 s
sc ε_ pl ¼ s : ε_ pl (11)
vON MISES STRESS (Pa)

t = 200.0 s

6.00E+05 The equivalent plastic strain is equal to the absolute value of the
axial plastic strain in uniaxial tension or compression. The plastic
flow is associative when the value of b is the same as that of a. In
4.00E+05 general, the plastic flow is non-associated to allow for the inde-
pendent calibrations of the shape of the yield surface and the
plastic Poisson’s ratio.
2.00E+05 Thermal strains arise due to volume changes caused by both
temperature differences and phase transformations, including so-
lidification and solid-state phase changes, i.e.
0.00E+00
0 0.0042 0.0084 0.0126 0.0168 0.021 ZT
DISTANCE ALONG THE BOTTOM PERIMETER (m) ðεth Þij ¼ aðTÞdT dij (12)
To
Fig. 5. von Mises stress variation along the perimeter of top and bottom edges of the
cut section for different cooling periods.
where a is temperature dependant coefficient of thermal expan-
sion, and To is the reference temperature which is considered to be
300 K and dij is Kronecker’s delta.
qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
a2ffi
3 S : S : p ¼ 1 trace s ¼ 1 s : I : B ¼ ap ¼ s
During the laser cutting process, self-annealing takes place in
q¼ 2 3 3 c c 1þ 3 the previously cut sections due to heat transfer from the irradiated
3k ffi : k ¼ sc
o spot. In order to simulate this situation, the consideration is made
a ¼ pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi poc
9k2 such that the relaxation of stresses and plastic strains occur as the
workpiece is heated to above melting temperature during laser
where a represents the shape of the yield ellipse in the peq stress heating and then cooling to room temperature. In this case, tem-
plane, B defines the size of the yield ellipse, pc is the yield strength perature dependent foam hardening sub-option in ABAQUS [15] is
in hydrostatic compression, and sc is the absolute value of the used during the simulations and low values of yield stress are
yield strength in uniaxial compression. The yield surface is the assumed above the melting temperature. The temperature-
Mises circle in the deviatoric stress plane, and an ellipse in the dependent properties used in the simulations are given in
meridional plane. The shape factor, a, remains constant during the Table 3. A typical computational time for each simulation using HP
process of any plastic deformation. The evolution of the yield el- 820 workstation is about 14 h because of the transient analysis and
lipse is controlled by an equivalent plastic strain, ˛pl . In the pre- the large number of meshes used in the solution domain.
sent study, the compression yield stress ratio k is taken as unity for Initially, the aluminum porous tile is considered to be stress free.
simplicity. In addition, all the surfaces are assumed to be free to expand and
The flow potential for the isotropic hardening model is chosen the tile is fixed along the bottom edge in line with the experimental
as [28]: conditions.
qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
2
G ¼ q2 þ b p2 (7) 4. Results and discussion

where b represents the shape of the flow potential in the peq stress Laser cutting of triangle geometry from the aluminum foam is
plane and is related to the plastic Poisson’s ratio, yp, by: carried out. Thermal stress fields around the cut edges are
 B.S. Yilbas et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 62 (2014) 28e36
Fig. 6. von Mises stress counters in the triangular blank at the onset of cooling cycle initiation.
predicted using the ABAQUS finite element code [15]. Morpholog-
ical changes in the cut section are examined incorporating the
analytical tools. It should be noted that von Mises variation is
presented rather than introducing Tresca criterion in this section.
This is due to that the Mises criterion represents a critical value of
the distortional energy stored in the material while the Tresca
criterion is that of a critical value of the maximum shear stress in
the material. Since laser cutting process does not involve with
mechanical loading, the possibility of forming shear stresses during
the plastic deformation become less likely. Therefore, the Mises
form becomes mathematically convenient approximation to
represent the stress field.
Fig. 2 shows temporal variation of surface temperature pre-
dicted and obtained from the thermocouple data. It is evident that
both results are in good agreement. It should be noted that the
thermocouple is at locations #1 and # 3 and the experimental error
is on the order of 5%.
Fig. 3 shows temperature distribution along the perimeter of the
top and bottom edges of the cut geometry for different cooling
periods while Fig. 4 shows temperature at t ¼ 0.07 s. It should be
noted that the cooling cycle starts at t ¼ 0.21 s. Temperature well
33
above the liquidus temperature of aluminum foam occurs in the
region where the laser beam is located. This is particularly true at
the onset of the cooling cycle (t ¼ 0.21 s). The cooling cycle starts
immediately after the laser cutting ends, which is at t ¼ 0.21 s.
Moreover, temperature decays sharply from its maximum value in
the region near to the laser beam location. This, in turn, results in
high temperature gradients in this region. However, temperature
behavior differs notably at the corners of the cut geometry at the
beginning of the cooling cycle. In this case, temperature remains
low in this region. The attainment of low temperature is attributed
to the conduction cooling in this region. It should be noted that a
wedge is formed in the corners of the cut section, which enhances
the heat transfer while increasing the heat conduction from the
corners to its neighborhood. As the cooling period progresses,
temperature reduces and reaches the initial temperature at
t ¼ 200 s; in which case, the cooling period terminates. When
comparing temperature distribution at the top and bottom edges of
the cut section, it can be seen that both temperature distributions
behave in similar manners. However, the maximum value of tem-
perature reduces at the bottom edge of the cut section, which is
associated with the absorption of the incident radiation. In this
34 B.S. Yilbas et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 62 (2014) 28e36

case, relatively lower laser intensity results in lower temperature at stress is less than the yielding limit of aluminum foam [30]; in
the bottom edge of the cut section as compared to that at the top which case, large scale deformation and crack formation at the cut
edge. edges are not possible.
Fig. 5 shows von Mises stress distribution along the top and Fig. 7 shows von Mises stress distribution along the z-axis for
bottom perimeters of the cut section during the cooling cycle while different locations along the perimeter of the cut edges (Fig. 1) for
Fig. 6 shows contours of von Mises stress in the cut section. von two cooling periods. von Mises stress remains almost the same
Mises stress remains low in the region where temperature is high at along the z-axis at location #1. This is because of the self-annealing
the initiation of the cooling cycle. This is because of temperature effect of the recently cut regions. In this case, location #1 is cut
dependent elastic modulus, which decreases with increasing tem- initially and heat transfer to region #1 from the recently cut edges
perature. von Mises stress behavior does not show a regular pattern influences the cooling rates along the z-axis at location #1. More-
as observed in the previous studies [29]. The irregular behavior of over, the uniform cooling suppresses the variation of von Mises
von Mises stress is attributed to small size of the cut geometry with stress along the z-axis at location #1. In the case of location #2
sharp edges along the perimeter of the cut section. As the cooling (which is the location along the recently cut edge prior to the
cycle progresses, von Mises stress reduces along the perimeters of termination of cutting), the cooling rate remains high in this region.
the cut edges. Since temperature attains low values at the corners
of the cut section, von Mises stress attains low values in this region.
However, in the neighborhood of the corners, von Mises stress in-
creases substantially, which is associated with the high tempera-
ture gradient formation in the near regions of the corners of the cut
edges. von Mises stress remains low in the region where the laser
beam is located at the initiation of the cooling cycle. This is
attributed to the self annealing effect, which is incorporated in the
analysis. Consequently, gradual cooling due to heat conduction
results in low stress levels in this region. This maximum von Mises

Fig. 7. von Mises stress distribution along the z-axis (depth of the cut section) at
different locations around the cut edges and two cooling periods. Fig. 8. Optical photographs of laser cut triangular blank from aluminum foam.
 B.S. Yilbas et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 62 (2014) 28e36
In addition, thermal expansion at the free surfaces (z ¼ 0 and
z ¼ 0.005 m) lowers the stress levels in this region. However, the
cut section at the mid-height does not freely expand along the z-
axis. This, in turn, increases von Mises stress along the z-axis at
location #3. Since self-annealing effect is incorporated in the
analysis, heat transfer to location #2 from the neighborhood of
location #3 modifies von Mises stress distribution at location #2. In
this case, the magnitude of stress levels is suppressed, which is
more pronounced at mid-thickness of the workpiece at location #2.
Fig. 8 shows optical photographs of laser cut geometry while
Fig. 9 shows SEM micrographs of cut sections. It is evident from the
optical photographs that the cut edges are free from large scale
sideways burning, cracks and large size dross attachments. This
indicates that the cutting parameters selected results in clear cut-
ting of aluminum foam of large pores. It should be noted that the
laser cutting parameters are selected after the initial cutting ex-
periments. It is observed that increasing laser power intensity en-
hances the size of sideways burning and dross attachment at the
cut edges. In addition, lowering the cutting speed has the similar
effects on the resulting cut edges. The close examination of SEM
micrograph that the pore surfaces are not covered by the molten
flow and cut section is free from asperities such as cracks and crack
networks. In addition, no striation pattern is observed at the kerf
surface; however, some small local molten flow occurs at the kerf
surface. The molten flow terminates at the cut surface without
Fig. 9. SEM micrographs of laser cut triangular blank from aluminum foam.
35
Fig. 10. X-ray diffractogram of laser cut edge.
reaching the bottom of the cut edges. This is due to the insufficient
amount of molten material generated during the cutting. The close
examination of the SEM micrograph reveals that small size dross
attachment takes place at the edges of the cut section. The dross
attachment is local and does not conform along the edges. The
dross attachment is associated with the reduced drag force acting
on the molten flow in the cut section during the cutting process. It
should be noted that the assisting gas exerts a drag force on the
molten flow while purging the molten metal out of the kerf width.
However, toward the kerf exit, assisting gas pressure drops and the
drag force acting on the molten flow becomes less in this region.
The elemental composition of the alloy attains almost the same
prior to and after the laser cutting process (Table 2). This indicates
that the depletion of aluminum due to evaporation does not take
place in the cutting section. The X-ray diffractogram (Fig. 10) reveals
that aluminum oxide is formed in the cutting section despite the
use of high pressure nitrogen assisting gas. The formation of
aluminum oxide is attributed to the oxidation reactions because of
the air trap in the pores. It should be noted that air trap in the pores
undergoes exothermic reactions with molten aluminum causing
the formation of aluminum oxide in the cutting section.
5. Conclusion
Laser cutting of triangular blanks in aluminum foam is carried
out. Thermal stress fields developed in the cut section are simu-
lated using the ABAQUS finite element code in line with the
experimental conditions. Initial tests are carried out to obtain the
optimum laser cutting parameters prior to the model study. To
validate the temperature predictions, surface temperature is
measured using the thermocouples. The morphological changes in
the cut section are examined through incorporating the optical and
scanning electron microscopes, energy dispersive spectroscopy and
X-ray diffraction. It is found that temperature exceeds the liquidus
temperature of the substrate material in the irradiated region. The
temperature gradients vary along the edges of the cut section due
to heat transfer from the cut edges to their neighborhood. von
Mises stress is high at the beginning of the cooling cycle and it
shows irregular behavior around the perimeter of the cut edges,
which is attributed to the variation of the temperature gradient
along the cut edges. von Mises stress remains high at the mid-
height of the workpiece thickness and in the region close to the
location of the irradiated beam. Laser cut edges are free from large
scale sideways burnings and asperities. Local flow of molten ma-
terial is observed at the cut surfaces; however, the surface of the
36 B.S. Yilbas et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 62 (2014) 28e36
pores is not covered or blocked by the molten flow. The cut edges
are free from striation patterns and no crack network is observed at
the cut surfaces. Some small dross attachments are formed at the
kerf exit, which is attributed to low drag force acting on the molten
flow in the kerf during the cutting process.
Acknowledgements
The authors acknowledge the support of King Fahd University of
Petroleum and Minerals, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia for this work.
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