Experimental Study of the Temperature Profile of a Gaussian Type Heat Distribution

Abstract

In research aimed at studying the laser microwelding of thermoplastic materials, two theoretical heat flow models were studied by Dr. Grewell. In the surface temperature profile based on the Gaussian type distributed heat source model, two peak temperatures were predicted. The purpose of the current project was to develop a controlled test environment to study the surface temperature profile of a thermoplastic material using a Gaussian type heat source and to validate the prediction of the inflection point in the plastic sample. One of the key results of the initial experimentation was the lack of a Gaussian distribution of the infrared lamp used as a heat source. This limitation was addressed by first employing a thermal camera and then later a laser system. The observation of two peak temperatures was not substantiated with the experimentations conducted in this study.