5. Concluding Remarks

Thermal stress developed in the laser irradiated material is governed by laser and workpiece materials. The main laser parameters include the pulse length and the laser power intensity while the important material properties are the thermal conductivity, absorption depth, elastic modules, thermal expansion coefficient, and Poisson’s ratio. Depending upon the duration of the laser pulse, the heating process can be classified into two categories, which are equilibrium and non-equilibrium heating situations. In the case of equilibrium heating, duration is longer than the thermalization time of the substrate material and Fourier heating law governs the heating process. However, laser pulse durations comparable and shorter than the thermalization time of the substrate material, wave behavior of stress field takes place and the hyperbolic nature of the governing equations are used to account for the wave behavior. Consequently, care must be taken to formulate the heating and thermal stress problems in line with the physical aspects and scale of the problem. The conclusions derived from the body of this book are presented according to the following sub-headings and in line with the previous studies [1–18].