In order to explore the influence of laser power on the evolution of molten pool and convective heat transfer of laser cladding Incoloy 926 on stainless steel surface, a three-dimensional thermal fluid multi-field coupled laser cladding numerical model was established in this paper. The variation of latent heat during solid-liquid phase transformation was treated by apparent heat capacity method. The change in the gas–liquid interface was tracked using the mesh growth method in real time. The instantaneous evolution of temperature field and velocity flow field of laser cladding Incoloy 926 on a stainless steel surface under different laser power was discussed. The solidification characteristic parameters of the cladding layer were calculated based on the temperature-time variation curves at different nodes. The mechanism of the impact of laser power on the microstructure of the cladding layer was revealed. The experiment of laser cladding Incoloy 926 on 316L surface was carried out under different laser power. Combined with the numerical simulation results, the effects of laser power on the geometrical morphology, microstructure and element distribution of the cladding layer were compared and analyzed. The results show that with the increase in laser power, the peak temperature and flow velocity of the molten pool surface both increase significantly. The thermal influence of the molten pool center on the edge is enhanced. The temperature gradient, solidification rate, and cooling rate increased gradually. The microstructure parameters (G/R) are relatively small when the laser power is 1000 W. In the experimental range, the dilution rate and wetting angle of the cladding layer both increase with the increase in laser power. When the laser power is 1000 W, the alloying elements of the cladding layer are more evenly distributed and the microstructure is finer. The experimental results are in good agreement with the simulation results.
