Modelling of laser cladding of medium carbon steel - a first approach

Abstract

A model on laser cladding of medium carbon steel, used in railway wheels and rails, is developed and implemented. When the laser beam is scanned over the surface during the cladding operation, phase transformations occur in the topmost layer of the substrate material due to rapid heating and cooling. The hardened regions may later be annealed, either during subsequent passes of the laser beam or by for example induction heating. The current model is a first step towards judging the resulting microstructure and hardness in the heat affected zone under the clad.