Evaporative Cutting of a Semi-infinite Body With a Moving CW Laser

The formation of a deep groove by evaporation on a moving semi-infinite solid is considered. Evaporative removal of material is achieved by focusing a high-power, highly concentrated Gaussian laser beam of constant wattage (CW laser) onto the surface of the solid. Assuming thermal losses due to conduction and convection to be relatively minor, these losses are treated in an approximate fashion using a simple integral method. The relevant nonlinear partial differential equations are solved numerically, and results for groove depth and shape are presented for a variety of laser and solid parameters.