The influences of laminated structure on the ablation characteristics of carbon fiber composites under CW laser irradiation

•A 3D model considering ablation rates related to laminated structure is developed.•Non-monotonic temperature rising is observed during laser irradiation.•An elliptic ablation morphology is predicted by our model and proved by experiment. The influences of structure on the ablation characteristics of carbon fiber composites under CW laser irradiation are investigated experimentally and numerically. The different ablation performance, that presented parallel and perpendicular to the carbon fiber orientation within the same layer, and the laminated structure of the carbon fiber composites are included in the proposed 3D numerical model to study the ablation characteristics of composites. The model is verified by laser ablation experiments. The numerical results indicate that the variation of the orientation of the elliptic ablation profile is decided by the difference of ablation performance and the laminated structure. The non-monotonic temperature rising and the shape of heat affect zone at the material surface exposed to the laser radiation are associated with the heat flux in the laminated structure and has little to do with the difference of ablation performance.