Simulation study of waterjet light transmission characteristics of flat-topped beam in waterjet-guided laser

Optical field modulation is one of the common means of improving laser processing results. As a new and high-quality composite laser processing method, waterjet-guided lasers have been less studied in terms of optical field modulation. In order to investigate the feasibility of different energy distributions with different shapes of lasers in the field of waterjet-guided laser processing, the light transmission characteristics of different laser beams in waterjet are investigated using simulation. A three-dimensional waterjet-guided laser transmission model was developed to investigate the differences in energy distribution of a flat-topped beam, a Gaussian beam, and beams of various shapes incident on the waterjet. It is shown that the laser energy in the waterjet is still Gaussian-like after all beams are incident on the waterjet and reached a steady state. The reasons for the formation of the phenomenon are also analyzed based on geometrical optics.