Cutting and Drilling of Inorganic Materials for Civil Engineering Using a Chemical Oxygen-Iodine Laser

The inorganic material cutting capability of a chemical oxygen-iodine laser (COIL) was estimated as a basic study for field applications such as nuclear power plant decommission, disaster relief, and civil engineering. First, laser-matter interaction characteristics were measured by a commercial 2 kW CO2 laser and a 300 W small-scale COIL, then the cutting performance at an arbitrary output power was estimated using a simplified thermal balance model describing the beam-material interaction. The validity of the model is verified using the CO2 laser. It was estimated that a 100 mm concrete slab can be cut by a 10 kW COIL at a cutting speed of 250 mm/min.