Non Fourier Heat Transfer in Laser Heated Metal Surfaces

Various applications in laser beam technology involves the rapid surface heating of some object. For such high temperature gradient situations, the classical fourier heat conduction equation must be modified to include effects of the finite speed of heat propagation. In this paper, solution methodologies of integral approximations and similarity are employed to construct solutions to the non-fourier equation. The additional term in the equation does not present any conceptual additional difficulties in obtaining solutions, although algebraic complexity increases. The resulting temperature responses are not unlike those from the classical Fourier formulation, at least for time scales several orders of magnitude greater than the relaxation time. For irradiation intensities corresponding to high powered lasers, incipient surface melting occurs on the order of nanoseconds.