On the competition between in-plane and out-of-plane deformations in laser thermal adjustment

Laser thermal adjustment as an application of laser forming in micro systems has received considerable attentions in recent years. The deformations of thin sheets in laser thermal adjustment are decoupled into in-plane and out-of-plane deformation components through re-distributing the plastic deformation zone. In order to understand the competition between these two deformations, the effects of geometric size and material property on deformation behavior are numerically investigated by changing the temperature distribution in laser heating process. The out-of-plane bending dominates if thicker plates are used, while samples with smaller width favor the in-plane deformation. Moreover, it is an effective way to choose materials with higher thermal conductivity and lower yield stress in laser thermal adjustment process for achieving larger in-plane deformation. (c) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.