TY - CONF A1 - Meng, Xiangmeng A1 - Putra, Stephen Nugraha A1 - Bachmann, Marcel A1 - Artinov, Antoni A1 - Rethmeier, Michael T1 - The influence of the free surface reconstruction on the spatial laser energy distribution in high power laser beam welding modeling T2 - Proceedings of the ICALEO 2022, 41st International Congress on Applications of Lasers & Electro-Optics N2 - An accurate and efficient description of the spatial distribution of laser energy is a crucial factor for the modeling of laser material processing, e.g., laser welding, laser cutting, or laser-based additive manufacturing. In this study, a 3D heat transfer and fluid flow model coupled with the volume-of-fluid algorithm for free surface tracking is developed for the simulation of molten pool dynamics in high-power laser beam welding. The underlying laser-material interactions, i.e., the multiple reflections and Fresnel absorption, are considered by a ray-tracing method. Two strategies of free surface reconstruction used in the ray-tracing method are investigated: a typical piecewise linear interface calculation (PLIC)-based method and a novel localized Level-Set method. The PLIC-based method is discrete, resulting in non-continuous free surface reconstruction. In the localized Level-Set method, a continuous free surface is reconstructed, and thus the exact reflection points can be determined. The calculated spatial laser energy distribution and the corresponding molten pool dynamics from the two methods are analyzed and compared. The obtained numerical results are evaluated with experimental measurements to assure the validity of the proposed model. It is found that distinct patterns of the beam multiple reflections are obtained with the different free surface reconstructions, which shows significant influence not only on the molten pool behaviors but also on the localized keyhole dynamics. T2 - International Congress of Applications of Lasers & Electro-Optics 2022 CY - Orlando, FL, USA DA - 17.10.2022 KW - Laser beam welding KW - laser energy distribution KW - Weld pool dynamics KW - Ray-tracing PY - 2022 SP - 1 EP - 9 AN - OPUS4-56533 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -