AerMet100 steel is a typical difficult-to-cut material, and laser-assisted milling (LAM) is a promising machining technology for this kind of material. In LAM process, the material is softened by the thermal effect of laser beam, which improves the machinability of the materials. And finally, the cutting forces are reduced compared with conventional milling (CM). This paper presents an analytical model considering material softening effect to predict the cutting force during LAM. The cutting force is produced by shearing and ploughing action. Both laser source and cutting tool are discretized into elements. Based on the Johnson-Cook (J-C) constitutive model and the thermal model due to laser beam and cutting action, the shear plane temperature and the shear flow stress considering the combined effects of laser heating and plastic deformation are calculated iteratively, and the influence of material softening effect on cutting force coefficients is taken into account. A series of experiments carried out on AerMet100 steel demonstrate the accuracy of the cutting force model, and the results show that the three-axis cutting force in LAM is reduced by up to 33.9%. Besides, the influence of laser parameters related to material softening effect on the cutting force is discussed based on the proposed model.

AerMet100钢是一种典型的难切削材料，而激光辅助铣削（LAM）是一种有前途的加工技术。在LAM工艺中，材料由于激光束的热效应而软化，从而提高了材料的可加工性。最后，与传统铣削（CM）相比，切削力降低了。本文提出了一种考虑材料软化作用的分析模型，以预测LAM过程中的切削力。切削力是通过剪切和犁耕作用产生的。激光源和切割工具均离散化为元素。根据Johnson-Cook（JC）本构模型和激光束和切割作用产生的热模型，迭代计算了考虑激光加热和塑性变形共同作用的剪切面温度和剪切流应力，并考虑了材料软化效果对切削力系数的影响。在AerMet100钢上进行的一系列实验证明了切削力模型的准确性，结果表明，LAM中的三轴切削力降低了33.9％。此外，基于所提出的模型，讨论了与材料软化效果有关的激光参数对切削力的影响。结果表明，LAM中的三轴切削力降低了33.9％。此外，基于所提出的模型，讨论了与材料软化效果有关的激光参数对切削力的影响。结果表明，LAM中的三轴切削力降低了33.9％。此外，基于所提出的模型，讨论了与材料软化效果有关的激光参数对切削力的影响。