Heat Transfer Numerical Analysis Applied to a Quenching Process

The high requirements in terms of thermal and structural stresses for the modern technological applications pointed out the need for a detailed knowledge of the manufacturing processes utilized to produce more durable materials. The quenching process is one of these treatments, a rapid cooling utilized to obtain harder metal components. In the last years, research efforts about this process have allowed to develop methods to predict the heat transfer coefficients. The first part of the present work consists into the application of literature correlations, with water and oil as quenching mediums, to different geometries. The objective is to estimate the heat transfer behavior during the thermal process. Then, a numerical model with these thermal transient features has been implemented to simulate the quenching process in oil for a cylinder made of INCONEL 600. Finally, mesh sensitivity has been carried out, in order to evaluate how cell thickness influences the accuracy of the cooling rate curves.