Finite Element Analysis of Laser Welding: A State of Art Review

As a well-established modern manufacturing process, laser welding is widely adopted in different industry fields to assemble lightweight structures. Major advances have been made in recent years in laser welding. This article reviews the latest development of finite element analysis of laser welding, in terms of process, damage modeling, fatigue behavior, dynamic characteristics, and laser hybrid welding. Some important numerical issues such as materials modeling, meshing procedure, and failure criteria are discussed. Finite element analysis of laser welding will allow many different laser welding processes to be simulated in order to perform a selection of different system parameters before testing, which would be time-consuming or be prohibitively expensive in practice. The main methods used in finite element analysis of laser welding are discussed and illustrated with brief case studies.