Affiliation:
1. School of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Civil Engineering, The University of Manchester, Manchester, UK
Abstract
Previous studies into the use of high-power diode lasers (HPDLs) for the removal of unwanted grout between tiles revealed the dominant cause of the material removal to be thermally induced chemical reactions occurring within the material during the process. In this work a simple, easily programmable, three-dimensional, finite difference numerical model for the laser-based grout removal process is presented. The primary aim of the analysis is to calculate the temperature profile inside the grout, and thus to predict the material phase and the resultant geometry of the volume removed as a result of continuous-wave HPDL treatment. The effects of varying laser power and speed using different laser beam shapes are examined over the entire range of the heating cycle. The calculated results are compared with experimental results, showing reasonable agreement between removal depths obtained experimentally and those predicted by the model.
Subject
Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering,Mechanical Engineering
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