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Laser micro melting of metal surfaces is widely used in industrial applications such as welding, polishing and texturing. However, these processes often inherit characteristic surface topography such as dimples, protuberances, and ripple-like structures. This paper examines the mechanisms possible for the formation of such structure in laser micro melting of steel. Therefore, a 2D axisymmetric finite element model is formulated which considers the effect of recoil pressure, thermo-capillary shear stress and normal stress due to surface tension on the relaxation and deformation of melt pool surface during laser micro melting. It has been found out that the recoil pressure significantly affects the surface protuberance height and genesis of ripple like structures. Further, the thermo-capillary and chemi-capillary shear stress dominate the melt redistribution process during heating, while the normal stress due to surface …