2009, Hömberg, Dietmar, Kern, Daniela

The goal of this paper is to show how the heat treatment of steel can be modelled in terms of a mathematical optimal control problem. The approach is applied to laser surface hardening and the cooling of a steel slab including mechanical effects. Finally, it is shown how the results can be utilized in industrial practice by a coupling with machine-based control.

2007, Fasano, Antonio, Hömberg, Dietmar, Panizzi, Lucia

A mathematical model for the gas carburizing of steel is presented. Carbon is dissolved in the surface layer of a low-carbon steel part at a temperature sufficient to render the steel austenitic, followed by quenching to form a martensitic microstructure. The model consists of a nonlinear evolution equation for the temperature, coupled with a nonlinear evolution equation for the carbon concentration, both coupled with two ordinary differential equations to describe the phase fractions. We prove existence and uniqueness of a solution and finally present some numerical simulations.

2006, Alder, Holger, Hömberg, Dietmar, Weiss, Wolf

Bei der Oberflaechenhärtung mit Hilfe von Laserstrahlen ist eine konstante Einhärtetiefe erwünscht, wobei gleichzeitig Anschmelzungen vermieden werden sollen. Um Anschmelzungen zu verhindern, kann die Temperatur im Auftreffpunkt des Lasers gemessen werden und die Laserleistung entsprechend geregelt werden. Eine konstante Temperatur fährt bei geometrisch komplizierten Bauteilen jedoch nicht zu einer konstanten Einhärtetiefe. In dieser Arbeit wird ein Verfahren aufgezeigt, wobei durch numerische Simulationen eine nichtkonstante Oberflächentemperatur berechnet wird, die eine konstante Einhärtetiefe liefert. Die berechnete Oberflächentemperatur kann als Solltemperatur im realen Prozess benutzt werden.

2008, Dreyer, Wolfgang, Hömberg, Dietmar, Petzold, Thomas

We present a thermodynamically consistent model to describe the austenite-ferrite phase transition in steel. We consider the influence of the mechanical displacement field due to eigenstrains caused by volumetric expansion. The model equations are derived in a systematical framework. They are based on the conservation laws for mass and momentum and the second law of thermodynamics. By means of numerical computations for a simplified interface controlled model, we examine the influence of the mechanical contributions to the transformation kinetics and the equilibrium states.

2007, Chełminski, Krzysztof, Hömberg, Dietmar, Kern, Daniela

We investigate a thermomechanical model of phase transitions in steel. The strain is assumed to be additively decomposed into an elastic and a thermal part as well as a contribution from transformation induced plasticity. The resulting model can be viewed as an extension of quasistatic linear thermoelasticity. We prove existence of a unique solution and conclude with some numerical simulations.

2006, Hömberg, Dietmar, Yamamoto, Masahiro

Motivated by the growing number of industrially important laser material treatments we investigate the controllability on a curve for a semilinear parabolic equation. We prove the local exact controllability and a global stability result in the twodimensional setting. As an application we consider the control of laser surface hardening. We show that our theory applies to this situation and present numerical simulations for a PID control of laser hardening. Moreover, the result of an industrial case study is presented confirming that the numerically derived temperature in the hot-spot of the laser can indeed be used as set-point for the machine-based process control.

2009, Hömberg, Dietmar, Steinbrecher, Andreas, Stykel, Tatjana

In this article we will consider the optimal control of robot guided laser material treatments, where the discrete multibody system model of a robot is coupled with a PDE model of the laser treatment. We will present and discuss several optimization approaches of such optimal control problems and its properties in view of a robust and suitable numerical solution. We will illustrate the approaches in an application to the surface hardening of steel.

2008, Fasano, Antonio, Hömberg, Dietmar, Naumov, Dmitri

We study a mathematical model for laser-induced thermotherapy, a minimally invasive cancer treatment. The model consists of a diffusion approximation of the radiation transport equation coupled to a bio-heat equation and a model to describe the evolution of the coagulated zone. Special emphasis is laid on a refined model of the applicator device, accounting for the effect of coolant flow inside. Comparisons between experiment and simulations show that the model is able to predict the experimentally achieved temperatures reasonably well.

2008, Hömberg, Dietmar, Meyer, Christian, Rehberg, Joachim, Ring, Wolfgang

This paper is concerned with the state-constrained optimal control of the two-dimensional thermistor problem, a quasi-linear coupled system of a parabolic and elliptic PDE with mixed boundary conditions. This system models the heating of a conducting material by means of direct current. Existence, uniqueness and continuity for the state system are derived by employing maximal elliptic and parabolic regularity. By similar arguments the linearized state system is discussed, while the adjoint system involving measures is investigated using a duality argument. These results allow to derive first-order necessary conditions for the optimal control problem.

2006, Rott, Oliver, Hömberg, Dietmar, Mense, Carsten

The modeling of dynamic processes in milling and the determination of stable cutting conditions have become increasingly important for the optimization of manufacturing processes. Analytic approaches and time domain simulations based on simplified dynamic systems are used to identify chatter-free machining conditions. Stresses applied to the system are generally estimated by cutting force models. The goal of this paper is to compare the influence of the cutting force models on the stability limits. Numerical simulations of a simplified, generic milling machine model are therefore performed, while varying the cutting force approach. In order to distinguish stable from unstable cutting conditions a numerical stability criterion is used. The resulting stability charts are then investigated and analyzed to show the effect of the different cutting force models.