Influence of laser energy distribution on laser surface microstructure processing

Laser surface microstructure can improve the friction properties, biomedical properties and optical properties of materials. In this paper, a two-dimensional finite element model based on temperature-dependent surface tension is proposed to study the effects of different laser energy density distributions on surface morphology. The results show that: when the laser energy density is applied to the molten pool under the Gaussian distribution and uniform distribution, respectively, the peak temperature of the molten pool surface is varied, and the difference of temperature gradient leads to the changes of surface tension. As the surface topography is mainly affected by the surface tension, different laser energy densities will produce different surface topography, therefore, its analysis will help us understand the formation mechanism of laser surface microstructures.