No Arabic abstract
Efficient control of a laser welding process requires the reliable prediction of process behavior. A statistical method of field modeling, based on normalized RBFNN, can be successfully used to predict the spatiotemporal dynamics of surface optical activity in the laser welding process. In this article we demonstrate how to optimize RBFNN to maximize prediction quality. Special attention is paid to the structure of sample vectors, which represent the bridge between the field distributions in the past and future.
High irradiance lasers incident on metal surfaces create a complex, dynamic process through which the metal can rapidly change from highly reflective to strongly absorbing. Absolute knowledge of this process underpins important industrial laser processes like laser welding, cutting, and metal additive manufacturing. Determining the time-dependent absorptance of the laser light by a material is important, not only for gaining a fundamental understanding of the light-matter interaction, but also for improving process design in manufacturing. Measurements of the dynamic optical absorptance are notoriously difficult due to the rapidly changing nature of the absorbing medium. This data is also of vital importance to process modelers whose complex simulations need reliable, accurate input data; yet, there is very little available. In this work, we measure the time-dependent, reflected light during a 10 ms laser spot weld using an integrating sphere apparatus. From this, we calculate the dynamic absorptance for 1070 nm wavelength light incident on 316L stainless steel. The time resolution of our experiment (< 1 us) allows for the determination of the precise conditions under which several important physical phenomena occur, such as melt and keyhole formation. The average absorptances determined optically were compared to calorimetrically-determined values, and it was found that the calorimeter severely underestimated the absorbed energy due to mass lost during the spot weld. Weld nugget cross-sections are also presented in order to verify our interpretation of the optical results, as well as provide experimental data for weld model validation.
Evolutions of Geant4 code have affected the simulation of electron backscattering with respect to previously published results. Their effects are quantified by analyzing the compatibility of the simulated electron backscattering fraction with a large collection of experimental data for a wide set of physics configuration options available in Geant4. Special emphasis is placed on two electron scattering implementations first released in Geant4 version 10.2: the Goudsmit-Saunderson multiple scattering model and a single Coulomb scattering model based on Mott cross section calculation. The new Goudsmit-Saunderson multiple scattering model appears to perform equally or less accurately than the model implemented in previous Gean
Several total and partial photoionization cross section calculations, based on both theoretical and empirical approaches, are quantitatively evaluated with statistical analyses using a large collection of experimental data retrieved from the literature to identify the state of the art for modeling the photoelectric effect in Monte Carlo particle transport. Some of the examined cross section models are available in general purpose Monte Carlo systems, while others have been implemented and subjected to validation tests for the first time to estimate whether they could improve the accuracy of particle transport codes. The validation process identifies Scofields 1973 non-relativistic calculations, tabulated in the Evaluated Photon Data Library(EPDL), as the one best reproducing experimental measurements of total cross sections. Specialized total cross section models, some of which derive from more recent calculations, do not provide significant improvements. Scofields non-relativistic calculations are not surpassed regarding the compatibility with experiment of K and L shell photoionization cross sections either, although in a few test cases Ebels parameterization produces more accurate results close to absorption edges. Modifications to Biggs and Lighthills parameterization implemented in Geant4 significantly reduce the accuracy of total cross sections at low energies with respect to its original formulation. The scarcity of suitable experimental data hinders a similar extensive analysis for the simulation of the photoelectron angular distribution, which is limited to a qualitative appraisal.
Pathways-reduced analysis is one of the techniques used by the Fispact-II nuclear activation and transmutation software to study the sensitivity of the computed inventories to uncertainties in reaction cross-sections. Although deciding which pathways are most important is very helpful in for example determining which nuclear data would benefit from further refinement, pathways-reduced analysis need not necessarily define the most critical reaction, since one reaction may contribute to several different pathways. This work examines three different techniques for ranking reactions in their order of importance in determining the final inventory, comparing the pathways based metric (PBM), the direct method and one based on the Pearson correlation coefficient. Reasons why the PBM is to be preferred are presented.
A customized finite-difference field solver for the particle-in-cell (PIC) algorithm that provides higher fidelity for wave-particle interactions in intense electromagnetic waves is presented. In many problems of interest, particles with relativistic energies interact with intense electromagnetic fields that have phase velocities near the speed of light. Numerical errors can arise due to (1) dispersion errors in the phase velocity of the wave, (2) the staggering in time between the electric and magnetic fields and between particle velocity and position and (3) errors in the time derivative in the momentum advance. Errors of the first two kinds are analyzed in detail. It is shown that by using field solvers with different $mathbf{k}$-space operators in Faradays and Amperes law, the dispersion errors and magnetic field time-staggering errors in the particle pusher can be simultaneously removed for electromagnetic waves moving primarily in a specific direction. The new algorithm was implemented into OSIRIS by using customized higher-order finite-difference operators. Schemes using the proposed solver in combination with different particle pushers are compared through PIC simulation. It is shown that the use of the new algorithm, together with an analytic particle pusher (assuming constant fields over a time step), can lead to accurate modeling of the motion of a single electron in an intense laser field with normalized vector potentials, $eA/mc^2$, exceeding $10^4$ for typical cell sizes and time steps.