This thesis presents a comprehensive study on the thermal modelling aspects of laser transmission welding of thermoplastics (LTW), a technology for joining of plastic parts. In the LTW technique, a laser beam passes through the laser-transmitting part and is absorbed within a thin layer in the laser-absorbing part. The heat generated at the interface of the two parts melts a thin layer of the plastic and, with applying appropriate clamping pressure, joining occurs. Transient thermal models for the LTW process were developed and solved by the finite element method (FEM). Input to the models included temperature-dependent thermo-physical properties that were adopted from well-known sources, material suppliers, or obtained by conducting experiments. In addition, experimental and theoretical studies were conducted to estimate the optical properties of the materials such as the absorption coefficient of the laser-absorbing part and light scattering by the laser-transmitting part. Lap-joint geometry was modelled for semi crystalline (polyamide - PA6) and amorphous (polycarbonate - PC) materials. The thermal models addressed the heating and cooling stages in a laser welding process with a stationary and moving laser beam. An automated ANSYS® script and MATLAB® codes made it possible to input a three-dimensional (3D), time-varying volumetric heat-generation term to model the absorption of a moving diode-laser beam. The result was a 3D time-transient, model of the laser transmission welding process implemented in the ANSYS® FEM environment. In the thermal imaging experiments, a stationary or moving laser beam was located in the proximity of the side surface of the two parts being joined in a lap-joint configuration. The side surface was then observed by the thermal imaging camera. For the case of the stationary beam, the laser was activated for 10 s while operating at a low power setting. For the case of the moving beam, the beam was translated parallel to the surface observed by the camera. The temperature distribution of a lap joint geometry exposed to a stationary and moving diode-laser beam, obtained from 3D thermal modelling was then compared with the thermal imaging observations. The predicted temperature distribution on the surface of the laser-absorbing part observed by the thermal camera agreed within 3C with that of the experimental results. Predicted temperatures on the laser-transmitting part surface were generally higher by 15C to 20C. This was attributed to absorption coefficient being set too high in the model for this part. Thermal imaging of the soot-coated laser-transmitting part surface indicated that significantly more scattering and less absorption takes place in this part than originally assumed. For the moving laser beam, good model match with the experiments (peak temperatures predicted within 1C) was obtained for some of the process conditions modelled for PA6 parts. In addition, a novel methodology was developed to extract the scattered laser beam power distribution from the thermal imaging observations of the moving laser beam. / Thesis (Ph.D, Mechanical and Materials Engineering) -- Queen's University, 2008-10-08 10:39:30.952