Finite element simulation of laser transmission welding of dissimilar materials between polyvinylidene fluoride and titanium

Now-a-days, metal to plastic micro-welding is of great interest in the field of biomedical and electronics applications. Laser transmission welding (LTW) has emerged as the most suitable technique for such applications. In this paper, a three-dimensional finite element (FE) thermal model is developed to simulate the laser transmission welding process for joining polyvinylidene fluoride to titanium using a distributed moving heat flux. The objectives of this study are to predict the transient temperature field as well as the weld dimensions. All the major physical phenomena associated with the LTW process, such as, heat radiation, thermal conduction and convection heat losses are taken into account in the model development. The simulation algorithm is programmed as a macro routine within the ANSYS® finite element code. The developed model derives its main advantage from its applicability in parametric studies of a wide range of laser transmission metal to plastic welding problems of different geometrical, material and joint type, requiring only the basic thermo-physical material properties, the geometric details and the laser process parameters as input. Keywords: Laser transmission welding, Temperature field, Weld dimension, Finite element analysis, Thermal modeling