Simulation on Drilling with Water-Jet Guided Laser

Water-jet guided laser processing is a kind of material processing technology using variable-length water jet optical waveguide. In this paper, by means of the finite element method (FEM), the simulation on drilling with water-jet guided laser was carried out based on thermal effect of laser and mechanical effect origining from shock pressure of shock wave caused by heat-induced explosion and impact of high-speeds water jet. The results show that evaporation and mechanical ablation of molten material is the main form of the material removal, the mechanical effect only contributes the slight deformation to the material with temperature gradient, the rapid water jet cooling after laser pulse played a quenching role in the processing area. In addition, the paper also analyzed the variable tendency of the impact of water jet to workpiece and clarified the scope and trend of the role of water jet.