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ABSRACT

PULSED LASER MICRO POLISHING


The objective of this work is to predict the final roughness of metal surfaces that have undergone pulsed
laser micro polishing. The motivation for pulsed laser micro polishing is to reduce the surface roughness
of parts whose surface texture can approach the feature size. Being able to predict the magnitude of the
polishing and frequency (wavelength) content of the surface will assist in the design of optimal processing
parameters with minimal experiments. Laser pulses are used to create shallow melt pools with a
controlled size (e.g., depth) and duration in order to allow surface tension forces to pull down asperities
with small radius of curvature. There is no ablation occurring in the process being modeled. The melt
depth and duration are predicted with a transient, two-dimensional axisymmetric heat transfer model with
temperature-dependent material properties. The surface of the melt pool is analytically modeled as
oscillations of stationary capillary waves with damping resulting from the forces of surface tension and
viscosity. Above a critical spatial frequency, fcr, a significant reduction in the amplitude of the spatial
Fourier components is expected. The work described in this paper extends the concept of critical
frequency to a physics-based prediction methodology for predicting the spatial frequency content and
surface roughness after polishing, given the features of the original surface, the material properties, and
laser parameters. The proposed prediction methodology was validated using line polishing data for
stainless steel 316L and area polishing results for pure nickel, Ti6Al4V, and Al-6061-T6. The predicted
average surface roughnesses were within 12% of the values measured on the polished surfaces.

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