Uncertainty quantification for modeling pulsed laser ablation of aluminum considering uncertainty in the temperature-dependent absorption coefficient

In this paper, an extension of the result of Wang et al. (“Modeling pulsed laser ablation of aluminum with finite element analysis considering material moving front,” Int. J. Heat & Mass Transfer, 113, 1246–1253, 2017) concerning the problem of uncertainty quantification for pulsed laser ablation (PLA) of aluminum is considered, when the source of uncertainty is due to an inherent randomness of the temperature-dependent absorption coefficient. In particular, we use a generalized polynomial chaos (gPC) method to incorporate the parameter uncertainty for the temperature-dependent absorption coefficient within the representation of the laser heat conduction phenomena. Furthermore, numerical simulation studies for the PLA of aluminum, with nanosecond Nd:YAG 266 nm pulsed laser, that demonstrate the proposed gPC predictions are presented. Finally, a sensitivity study is performed to identify whether small changes in the lower and/or upper parameter values of the absorption coefficient provide the most variance in the thermal and ablation responses.