An exhaustive model for the laser hardening of hypo eutectoid steel

This article presents an exhaustive mathematical model for the simulation of hypo-eutectoid carbon steel transformations during laser hardening. The proposed model takes into consideration all the the phenomena involved in the process with particular attention to implementing easy mathematical formulas in order to optimize the trade-off between the accuracy of the predicted results and the computational times. The proposed model calculates the 3D thermal field occurring into the workpiece and predicts the microstructural evolution of the target material exploiting an original approach based on the definition of thermodynamic thresholds. Several parameters and phenomena are taken into consideration in order to accurately simulate the process: laser beam characteristics,scanning strategy of the target and tempering effect due to mutually interacting beam trajectories.