Laser surface hardening is rapidly growing in industrial applications due to its high flexibility, accuracy, cleanness and energy efficiency. However, the experimental process optimization can be a tricky task due to the number of involved parameters, thus suggesting for alternative approaches such as reliable numerical simulations. Conventional laser hardening models compute the achieved hardness on the basis of microstructure predictions due to carbon diffusion during the process heat thermal cycle. Nevertheless, this approach is very time consuming and not allows to simulate real complex products during laser treatments. To overcome this limitation, a novel simplified approach for laser surface hardening modelling is presented and discussed. The basic assumption consists in neglecting the austenite homogenization due to the short time and the insufficient carbon diffusion during the heating phase of the process. In the present work, this assumption is experimentally verified through nano-hardness measurements on C45 carbon steel samples both laser and oven treated by means of atomic force microscopy (AFM) technique.

中文翻译：

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一种新的激光表面硬化建模方法的实验研究

由于其高灵活性，准确性，清洁性和能源效率，激光表面硬化在工业应用中正在迅速增长。但是，由于涉及的参数数量众多，因此实验过程的优化可能是一项艰巨的任务，因此建议使用替代方法，例如可靠的数值模拟。常规的激光淬火模型根据过程热循环中碳扩散引起的微观结构预测来计算获得的硬度。然而，这种方法非常耗时，并且不允许在激光处理期间模拟真实的复杂产品。为了克服这一限制，提出并讨论了一种新颖的简化的激光表面硬化建模方法。基本假设在于，由于时间短且在该过程的加热阶段碳扩散不充分而导致奥氏体均质化。在目前的工作中，通过对原子力显微镜（AFM）技术对激光和烤箱处理的C45碳钢样品进行纳米硬度测量，通过实验验证了这一假设。