Comparison between Phase Field and ALE Methods to model the Keyhole Digging during Spot Laser Welding

Nowadays, spot laser welding is a full-fledged part of industrial manufacturing and is routinely used due to its advantages. It generates very located temperature gradients, and therefore, induces small distortions in the pieces. The COMSOL Multiphysics software is used to model the interaction stage of an isolated impact made with a Nd:YAG pulsed laser. The free surface evolution has been precisely described with a moving mesh method (ALE method) by imposing the recoil pressure and the energy deposition as boundary conditions. The results have been compared with those obtained with a fixed mesh method (Phase Field method) for isothermal and thermal cases. A discussion is proposed to choose the more appropriate method to model this problem.