Thermal-mechanical behavior of sandwich panels with closed-cell foam core under intensive laser irradiation

Temperature field and thermal deformation of sandwich panels with closed-cell aluminum alloy foam core and heat-protective layer, which are subjected to Gaussian laser beam intensively irradiating, are investigated numerically. In transient heat analysis models, the influence of thermal conductivity, specific heat, and thickness of heat-protective layer on the temperature rise of the sandwich panels is calculated. In stress analysis models, a sequence coupled numerical method is utilized to simulate the thermal stress and deformation of sandwich panels induced by thermal expansion. Simulation results indicate that the temperature at center of sandwich panel increases firstly and then drops gradually with the increase of thermal conductivity of heat-protective layer after laser irradiation, and the critical thermal conductivity is obtained, while it decreases with the increase of specific heat and thickness of heat-protective layer. The thermal stress verifies the ?Cyclo-hoop effect?, i. e. radial stress is compression stress in ?hot zone? and tension stress in ?cold zone?. The max thermal deformation of sandwich panels slightly increases with the increase of thickness of heat-protective layer for given specific heat and thermal conductivity.