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The laser radiation induced thermal effects on the interactions between the tangential airflow and aluminum alloy are investigated numerically in this paper. A two dimensional model is developed for analysis of the evolutions of the temperature, stress and displacement of the flow and the aluminum alloy sheet at different flow speed through finite element method (FEM). It is found that in order to reach the same temperature in the aluminum alloy sheet, the input laser fluence needs to increase 4W/cm2 approximately, while the airflow speed increases one meter per second. Furthermore, in the situation of a thin aluminum alloy sheet irradiated by a large laser spot, the laser-induced thermal stress plays a leading role in the rupture of the sheet below the melting temperature. The airflow-induced shear stress and the pressure difference between the front and the rear surfaces of the sheet are minor effects compared to the thermal stress mentioned above. In addition, the bulge of the sheet induced by the laser heating would interact with the tangential airflow and lead to the formation of the downwind vortices, which may lead to a stronger shear stress. A vortex-induced oscillation appears when the Reynolds number of the airflow changes caused by the increase of the bulge height. And this vortex-induced oscillation would contribute to the damage of the aluminum sheet.
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