An integrated mathematical model for laser welding of thin metal sheets under a variety of laser material processing conditions has been developed and tested against the results of experiments. Full account is taken in the model of the interaction of the laser-generated keyhole with the weld pool. Results calculated from the model are found to agree well with experiment for appropriate values of the keyhole radius. The analysis yields values for power absorption in the metal. In a complementary calculation the total absorption of the laser energy is determined from detailed consideration of the inverse Bremsstrahlung absorption in the plasma and Fresnel absorption at the keyhole walls. To test these results, experiments were performed on 1 mm mild steel using a high-speed video camera, which measured the surface dimensions of the melt pool. Processing parameters were varied to study the effect on the melt pool; parameters considered included traverse speed, laser power and shroud gas species. The general shape of the weld pool was found to depend on whether penetration was full, partial or blind; only the results for full penetration were compared with the theory, which is for complete penetration only.

The paper makes use of the solution of the system of Saha equations derived for any mixture of ionized monatomic gases. This solution is specifically applied to the case of two-component mixtures of the gases used as shields in the process of laser welding, namely Ar plus He, Ar plus O2, Ar plus N2 and Ar plus H2. The number densities of electrons and ions, the degrees of ionization of the plasma as well as the refractive indices and the inverse Bremsstrahlung absorption coefficients are presented as functions of temperature for a variety of volume ratios of the gases in the mixtures. The properties of the mixture of helium and argon change dramatically as the volume ratio of the two gases is altered. This mixture is also most interesting insofar as laser welding is concerned because it causes only very slight defocusing of the laser light above the keyhole.

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