Thermal performance of materials exposed to pulsed laser heating

Engineering procedures for predicting the thermal response of semitransparent materials subjected to pulsed laser heating are presented. The analysis involves a coupled heat transfer and optics solution with multiple reflections at the interfaces, in-depth absorption, conduction and temperature varying properties. Stable solutions are obtained for materials exposed to MW/sq cm heating rates and microsecond pulse durations. The response of a low-density silica matrix and a germanium glass plate are presented to illustrate the salient features of the material-pulsed laser heating interaction.