Penetration failure theory and damage modeling of 2A12 aviation aluminum alloy under high-energy continuous laser irradiation

IF 8.3 1区工程技术 Q1 ENGINEERING, CIVIL

Thin-Walled Structures Pub Date : 2026-05-01 Epub Date: 2025-12-29 DOI:10.1016/j.tws.2025.114459

Yu Zhang , Dacheng Li , Xiaochuan Liu , Xianfeng Yang , Jiayu Zhou , Yulong Li

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

High-energy laser (HEL) weapons have emerged as a significant threat to thin-walled aerospace structures; however, the damage and failure mechanisms driven by coupled thermo-mechanical effects remain insufficiently understood. This study investigates the penetration failure mechanisms of 2A12 aluminum alloy under CW laser irradiation, and a one-dimensional model is developed to bridge the gap of fast perforation prediction. The model deliberately simplifies the analysis by focusing on dominant heat conduction and phase change processes, decoupling the laser irradiation response into sequential heating and melting stages. This approach yields an analytical expression for the penetration time, validated experimentally with an average error of 6.2% for a 2 mm-thick plate under power densities of 200–400 W/cm². Laser irradiation experiments reveal a characteristic “bag-shaped” damage morphology, and a “sandwich” damage-flow model is proposed to explain the failure process. The combined theoretical and experimental framework offers a reliable and efficient approach for the rapid assessment of laser-induced damage to aircraft structural components.

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高能连续激光辐照下2A12航空铝合金侵彻失效理论及损伤建模

高能激光（HEL）武器已经成为薄壁航空航天结构的重大威胁；然而，由热-力耦合效应驱动的损伤和破坏机制尚不清楚。本文研究了连续激光照射下2A12铝合金的穿透失效机理，建立了一维模型，弥补了快速穿孔预测的空白。该模型通过关注主要的热传导和相变过程，将激光辐照响应解耦为连续的加热和熔化阶段，从而有意简化了分析。该方法得到了穿透时间的解析表达式，实验验证了在200-400 W/cm²功率密度下2 mm厚板的平均误差为6.2%。激光辐照实验显示了典型的“袋状”损伤形态，并提出了“三明治”损伤流模型来解释破坏过程。该理论与实验相结合的框架为飞机结构部件激光损伤的快速评估提供了可靠、高效的方法。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Thin-Walled Structures 工程技术-工程：土木

CiteScore

9.60

自引率

20.30%

发文量

801

审稿时长

66 days

期刊介绍： Thin-walled structures comprises an important and growing proportion of engineering construction with areas of application becoming increasingly diverse, ranging from aircraft, bridges, ships and oil rigs to storage vessels, industrial buildings and warehouses. Many factors, including cost and weight economy, new materials and processes and the growth of powerful methods of analysis have contributed to this growth, and led to the need for a journal which concentrates specifically on structures in which problems arise due to the thinness of the walls. This field includes cold– formed sections, plate and shell structures, reinforced plastics structures and aluminium structures, and is of importance in many branches of engineering. The primary criterion for consideration of papers in Thin–Walled Structures is that they must be concerned with thin–walled structures or the basic problems inherent in thin–walled structures. Provided this criterion is satisfied no restriction is placed on the type of construction, material or field of application. Papers on theory, experiment, design, etc., are published and it is expected that many papers will contain aspects of all three.