Abstract
This update to the growing laserbeamFoam toolbox introduces significant enhancements to the open-source simulation framework for laser–material interaction, enabling high-fidelity modelling of complex multiphysics phenomena. In this release, we extend the toolbox’s capabilities to support fully compressible, multi-component, and multi-state flow through the compressibleLaserbeamFoam solver. Additionally, the original laserbeamFoam solver now has the option to use the isoAdvector interface treatment. This update also introduces tools to improve the coupling between all solvers in the toolbox and the discrete element method (DEM) that are used to generate particle placements using Lagrangian methods (namely, coupling with the open-source LIGGGHTS software). Another significant enhancement to the simulation toolbox is an overhaul of the laser discretization and ray-tracing algorithm, decoupling the laser spatial resolution from the mesh resolution and improving the ray-tracing algorithm’s parallel performance.