Mechanical Engineering ETDs

Publication Date

Fall 12-13-2025

Abstract

The purpose of this work is to create a method for accurately simulating the stresses due to heating from femtosecond laser pulses. Our work aims to calculate stress and strain in glass exposed to laser pulses used for laser welding. We simulate the effects of thermal heating, thermal expansion, and the viscoelasticity of glass for a single straight weld bead. The laser heating of K9 borosilicate glass was simulated using Finite Element Analysis (FEA). Thermal models developed by other researchers in earlier work were utilized in calculating the temperatures due to the laser exposure to the glass material. 2D simulations were performed using elastic and 12 element generalized Maxwell model on a square model. Viscoelastic properties were estimated at different temperatures using the thermorheologically simple assumption and the Williams-Landel-Ferry (WLF) Equation. Future work will include experiments to validate our results and expand to other glass types.

Keywords

FEA, laser, glass, viscoelasticity, stress, thermal

Degree Name

Mechanical Engineering

Level of Degree

Masters

Department Name

Mechanical Engineering

First Committee Member (Chair)

Dr. Heng Zuo

Second Committee Member

Dr. Yu-Lin Shen

Third Committee Member

Dr. Tariq Khraishi

Document Type

Thesis

Language

English

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