*4.3. Commparison of the Experimental and Modeling Results of the Bending of the Laser-Processed and Unprocessed Plates*

The mechanical bend tests showed that local laser processing increases the load required to reach the same level of deflection of laser-processed samples compared to unprocessed ones; see Figure 11 and Table 10. The experimental bending load, *Fexp*, increases depending on the laser-processed case: for 0.5 mm deflection, the *Fexp* increases from 3% up to 27%; for 1.0 mm deflection, *Fexp* increases from 29% up to 48%; for 1.5 mm deflection, *Fexp* increases from 32% up to 55%; for 2.0 mm deflection, *Fexp* increases from 30% up to 52%.

**Figure 11.** Experimental bending force *Fexp* vs. deflections w of the middle point of the differently laser-processed plates.

Experimental data confirmed that the effect of strengthening and total resistance of samples to bending was influenced by the position of the laser-processed area, the distance between laser tracks, the volume of the hardened phase and its ratio to the volume of laser-untreated material in the area of maximum stress from the applied load. The difference between modeling and bending test results was less than 15% (Table 10).




#### *4.4. Results of the Analysis of the Axial Sti*ff*ness of the Laser-Processed Plate*

The analysis of the results is presented mainly in terms of the relative quantities to make the analysis, discussion and results valid, not only for the particular cases considered in the present article, but also to extend the results and conclusions to other cases.
