Observation of Thermocapillary Effect in Gas -Assisted CO2 Laser Cutting of Steel

Investigations of melt’s dynamics have been performed with pyrometer in the gasjet-assisted CO2 laser cutting. Pyrometer consists of 4 sensors and local luminosity of metal melt has been measured precisely on different depth along front of cutting with long dimension resolution about 0.1 mm and with time resolution as short as 0.06 ms. The results of data processing of brightness temperature are reported for laser cutting of mild-steel plate 3 mm, 6 mm and 10 mm thick, that allows obtaining spectra of melt’s surface deformation for different values of cutting velocity and assisted gas pressure. The generation of capillary-wave turbulence following thermo-capillary effect can be observed in the locations, where intensity of radiation of CO2 laser on melt’s surface exceeds 1 MW/cm2. The R-M-S of temperature fluctuations is greater than 10 K in the range of sub-millimeter capillary waves. Thus, an additional mechanism of the anomalous absorption on the front of cutting can compensate the low absorption of the metal in case of 10.6 μm laser in comparison with the absorption of the metal in the near infrared range