www.mejournal.

orgJournalofMetallurgicalEngineering(ME)Volume4,2015
doi:10.14355/me.2015.04.002

NumericalCalculationoftheComprehensive
HeatTransferCoefficientontheSurfaceof
RailintheSprayCoolingProcess
GeLi1,ZhiminLiu*2,LinChen3,XianqinHou4
1.ArchitectureandCivilEngineeringSchool,2.ArchitectureandCivilEngineeringSchool,3.Materialand
MetallurgySchool,4.ArchitectureandCivilEngineeringSchool,InnerMongoliaUniversityofScienceand
Technology,BaotouInnerMongolia014010,China
ligeab@imust.cn;*2liuzhimin_ok@163.com;3chenlin39805@163.com;489239730@qq.com

Abstract
Inordertodeterminecomprehensiveheattransfercoefficientonthesurfaceofrailinthespraycoolingprocess,thesecondary
developmentofthefrontandbackprocessingmodulebythePythonscriptinglanguageforABAQUS.ThePythonscriptsare
written,andcoolingcurveofrailspraycoolingexperimentwasusedtocalculatethecomprehensiveheattransfercoefficient.
The results show that Python script can realize the function of automatically creating rail spray cooling model and iterative
calculation for the comprehensive heat transfer coefficient under ABAQUS environment. And the timevarying temperature
curveofrailwhichwascalculatedbyusingthecomprehensiveheattransfercoefficientapproximatestheexperimentalvalue.
Keywords
Rail;Comprehensiveheattransfercoefficient;Python;Spray

Introduction
Spray cooling is an important way of heat treatment, which has a great effect on improving the quality and
durabilityofcomponent.Nowmanyscholarsmainlyresearchspraycoolingofsomecomponents,suchascylinder,
steelplate[14],butstudyoftherailhasmanyinsufficient.Thespraycoolingisanimportantpartofquenchingfor
therail.Thewatermistascoolingmediumcanimprovethecoolingintensityofrail,thehardnessoftherailhead,
thetoughnessandabrasionresistanceofrail,andcontrolthetransformationbetweenmartensiteandaustenite.It
canreducetheproductioncycleandincreaseproductionspeedofrailwhilesatisfiesthequalityrequirements.The
comprehensiveheattransfercoefficientonthesurfaceisanimportantthermalphysicalparameterofrailinspray
cooling,andplaysanimportantroleinthelinkagebetweenexperimentandcalculation.Atpresentsomescholars
studiedaircooling,watercoolingofrailetc,andstudiedcomprehensiveheattransfercoefficient[57],buthadlittle
studyaboutthecomprehensiveheattransfercoefficientonthesurfaceofrailinthespraycoolingprocess.
Therailasspraycoolingartifactsinthispaper,andtheSecondaryofthefrontandbackprocessingofABAQUS
wasdevelopedbasedonthePython.Usingthetheoryofheattransfer,thecomprehensiveheattransfercoefficient
on the surface of rail in the spray cooling process was studied by the method of combining experiment with
numericalsimulation.
The Experiment of Spray Cooling on Rail
ThePhysicalParametersofRail
TABLE1THETHERMALPHYSICALPARAMETERSOFRAILU75V

Temperature/C

20

100

200

300

400

500

600

650

720

750

850

950

Specificheat/Wm1C1

41.59

39.71

37.48

34.95

32.32

30.0

28.96

28.08

34.81

23.38

25.68

26.92

Conductivity/Jkg1C1

473

482

498

513

529

599

635

756

1080

577

624

720

Expansioncofficient/10

15.3

15.75

15.9

16.25

16.5

16.75

16.8

21.5

21

21.4

21.45

18.5

Inthispaper,therailadoptedU75vandthespecificationfor60kg/m,longfor500mm.Thecarboncontentofthe

13

ww
ww.mejournaal.org JJournalofMettallurgicalEnggineering(ME
E)Volume4,22015

raiilis0.74%,leessthan0.77%,andbelon
ngstohyperreutectoidsteeel.Thethermalphysicallparameterss[7]ofrailU75v
areeshowninT
Table.1.
TheExperimen
ntofSprayCoolingonRa
ail

Temperature ()

Firrstly,halfam
meterrailwaasheatedforr45hoursu
until937.1Cintheheat
C
tingfurnace,,andtheraillwasmoved
dto
sprrayingdevicce.Thereare 3nozzlesdiistancing2000mmfromu
uppersurface
eoftherail, andeachsid
deofrailhav
vea
nozzleandtheebottomhav
veanozzle.T
Thesprayco
oolingonraillcost200sunderthecon
nditionsof1.200m3/hwaater
flo
ow and air p
pressure 0.21MPa as show
wn in Fig.1. The thermo
ocouple was put on 1# p
point which distance 10m
mm
fro
om the uppeer surface cen
nter of rail. The thermo couple is ussed for realttime measurrement to tem
mperature, and
a
tra
ansfers to A
ADAM acq
quisition carrd to gain the chang
ges curve of temperatture as sh
hown in Fig.2.
1000
900
800
700
600
500
400
300
200
100
0

FIG
G.1THEEXPER
RIMENTALSC
CHEMATICDIA
AGRAMOFSPR
RAY
COOLING
GONRAIL

50

1100

150

200
2

250

TTime(s)

EVARYINGTE
EMPERATUREC
CURVEOFRAIIL
FIIG.2THETIME

Th
he Numeric
cal Calcula
ation of Co
omprehens
sive Heat Transfer Coefficient
C
t on the Su
urface of
Rail
Ph
hysicalModeel
Based on the finite elemen
nt software of ABAQUSS and its sccripting lang
guage called Python, a program
p
wh
hich
callculatedcom
mprehensiveh
heattransferrcoefficiento
onthesurfacceofrailwasswritten.Theeprogramcrreatedthefin
nite
eleement modeel of rail, pu
ut into the conductivity
c
y, expansion cofficient, specific
s
heatt, mass density 7850kg//m3,
sollidustemperrature570,liquidustem
,
mperature6220andlateentheat78200J,setupan
ninitialtemp
perature937.1
ontherail,theetemperatureeofthewate
ermist20aandheattran
nsferboundarycondition
onsonthesu
urfaceofthe rail
mo
odel in addiition to two
o crosssectio
ons and a ssymmetry plane
p
of the rail model.. There are more comp
plex
rellationshipbeetweencomp
prehensivehe
eattransferccoefficienton
nthesurfaceofrailandw
waterflow,a
airpressureaand
disstance betweeen 3 nozzlees above the
e rail and up
pper surfacee of rail, which cannot bbe expressed
d with functtion
forrmula. The water flow, the air pre
essure and tthe distance in Experim
ments cannott be directly
y inputted into
i
AB
BAQUSsoftw
ware, which canonlybe
econvertedttotheheatccomprehensivetransferccoefficienton
nthesurfaceeof
raiilunderthecconditions.G
Generally,th
hecomprehen
nsiveheattrransfercoeffiicientonthe
esurfaceofrailisunknow
wn,
so it must be calculated by
b iteration through
t
usin
ng the heat transfer theo
ory and com
mbining with
h finite elem
ment
sofftware.Them
modelofraillwasshowninFig.3.

FIG.3FINITE ELEMENTMO
ODELOFRAIL

14

Jou
urnalofMetalllurgicalEngin
neering(ME)V
Volume4,20115 www
w.mejournal.org

TheCalculatio
onMethod
Th
hecoolingcu
urveinFig.2 wasdivided
dintoseveraalstepstoca
alculateacom
mprehensiveeheattransfercoefficientof
eacchstep.Thenumericalm
methodofeacchstepissho
ownasfollow
ws.
Acccording to tthe range of the comprehensive heatt transfer co
oefficient on the surface of rail in sp
pray process,, an
iniitial valueoff h1 was giveen for the co
omprehensiv
veheat transsfercoefficien
nt which thee first step corresponded
d to
beffore the rail model wass calculated. Temperaturre field was calculated. Temperaturee value T1 of
o 1# point was
w
exttracted from
m calculatedrresult. Anin
nitial value o
ofh2= h1+50 was again given
g
for a coomprehensiv
ve heat transsfer
coeefficient whiich the first step corresp
ponded to. T
Temperaturee field was calculated.
c
T
Temperature value T2 off 1#
point was extrracted from calculated
c
re
esult. Compaare it to the experimenta
al value to m
make sure th
hat the rangee of
tem
mperature errror met the requiremen
nts. If the ran
nge of temperature error met the reequirements, the calculattion
wo
ould be stop
pped. If the range of te
emperature eerror didnt meet the re
equirements,, the calcula
ation would be
con
ntinueduntilmeetingtheerequiremen
nts.Calculatiingflowcha
artofeachste
epwasshow
wninFig.4.

FIG.4
4CALCULATIN
NGFLOWCHA
ARTOFEACHSTEP

Th
he compreheensive heat transfer
t
coeffficient of eaach step is according to
o the above calculating flow path; the
com
mprehensiveeheattransfeercoefficientsoftheabo
oveNstepsa
aretakeninttothecalculaationmodel tocalculate the
callculationmo
odelfromsteep1whenth
hecompreheensiveheatttransfercoeffficientofsteepN+1iscallculated.Intthis
wa
ay,thecomprehensiveheeattransferccoefficientwh
hichtempera
atureofeach
hstepcorresp
pondstoisca
alculated.
WrroteCalculationProgram
m
Th
he calculation
n method off the compre
ehensive heaat transfer coefficient
c
ca
an not be acchieved in th
he optimizattion
mo
odule of AB
BAQUS, whiich need the secondary
y developmeent for the front and bback processsing modulee of
AB
BAQUSbasedonthePytthontorealiz
zebyprograamming.Thu
us,inthispap
per,theiteraativeprogram
mofcalculatting
com
mprehensivee heat transffer coefficien
nt on the su
urface rail iss h_OptimizationU60v.p
py and the
e spray coolling
mo
odel program
m is U60v__FunctionsTjjiedian.py, h_OptimizationU60v.p
py is compoosed of the following four
steeps:
1)

Called the ABAQU

US database
es and iterattive program
m h_Optim
mizationU60vv.py to pro
ovide ABAQ
QUS
environ
nmentforth
herailmodel.

2)

Gaveth
hecompreheensiveheattransfercoeffficientaninittialvalueandcalledtheffunctionof
createbeamin
model programto calculatethe
e1#pointtem
mperatureva
alueontherailtoCompaarewiththenextcalculaated

15

www.mejournal.orgJournalofMetallurgicalEngineering(ME)Volume4,2015

temperature to calculate the comprehensive heat transfer coefficient which this temperature point
correspondedto.
3)

Changedconstantlythecomprehensiveheattransfercoefficientbytheloopstatementswhile,calledthe
function of createIntprop in the model program U60v_FunctionsTjiedian.py to calculate the rail
temperature field, and outputted the temperature and comprehensive heat transfer coefficient which it
correspondedtobyiterativecalculation.

4)

Each set of temperature and comprehensive heat transfer coefficient which they corresponded to were
putted in iterative program, and worked out iteratively the next temperature and comprehensive heat
transfercoefficientwhichitcorrespondedto,finallyallthetemperatureandcomprehensiveheattransfer
coefficient which they corresponded to were outputted to a text document. The comprehensive heat
transfercoefficientinthistextdocumentwasthecomprehensiveheattransfercoefficientonthesurfaceof
rail.

TheCalculationResults
Bytheiterativeprogramh_OptimizationU60v.py,themodelprogramU60v_FunctionsTjiedian.pyandFig.2
the timevarying temperature curve of rail , calculated the changed curve of comprehensive heat transfer
coefficientonthesurfaceofrailwithtemperatureasshowninFig.5.
The changedcurve of comprehensive heat transfer coefficient onthe surface of rail with temperature in Fig.5 is
taken into the rail finite element model to calculate the timevarying temperature curve on 1# point of rail as
showninFig.6.

1000
2500

Experimental values
Calculated values

900

2000

Temperature( )

The comprehensive heat transfer

coefficient( Wm-2-1)

Comparingwithexperimentalvaluesandcalculatedvaluesshowsthatcalculatedvalueiscoincidedbasicallywith
experimental value in a scale of 045s periods and 80245s periods and calculated value have certain error with
experimental value in 4580 s period. On the whole calculated value are closer to experimental value.

1500

1000

500

800
700
600
500
400
300
200
100

0
0

100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000

Temperature ( )

0
0

FIG.5THECHANGEDCURVEOFCOMPREHENSIVEHEAT
TRANSFERCOEFFICIENTONTHESURFACEOFRAILWITH
TEMPERATURE

50

100

150

Time(s)

200

250

FIG.6THETIMEVARYINGTEMPERATURECURVEON1#POINT
OFRAIL

Conclusions
In this paper, the comprehensive heat transfer coefficient on the surface of rail under the spray cooling was
obtainedbythemethodofcombiningexperimentwithnumericalsimulation.Thetimevaryingtemperaturecurve
calculated by the comprehensive heat transfer coefficient is closer to experimental value, which knows that the
comprehensive heat transfer coefficient accords with the actual in this paper. In the process of solving the
comprehensive heat transfer coefficient on the surface of rail, the Python scripting language is used in the
secondarydevelopmentofABAQUSwhichmakesiterativecalculationandresultsanalysisautomatically,savesa
lotoftime,andprovidesreferencesfordeterminingthecomprehensiveheattransfercoefficientofothersections
steel.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT

ThisworkwasfinanciallysupportedbyNSFCofThehardeningtechnologyofAsymmetriccomplexprofilesteel

16

JournalofMetallurgicalEngineering(ME)Volume4,2015www.mejournal.org

andrelatedbasicresearch(51361021)forsubsidization.
REFERENCES

[1]

Benmouhoub D1, Mataoui A2. Turbulent Heat Transfer From a Slot Jet Impinging on a Flat Plate.Heat Transfer. 2013
Oct;135(10):10220111022019

[2]

HanTaw Chen,HungChih Lee. Estimation of spray cooling characteristics on a hot surface using the hybrid inverse
scheme.HeatandMassTransfer.Volume50,Issues1314,July2007:25032513

[3]

J. T Jin, H Long, X. D Wang, G. F Li, L. C Miu. Computer simulation of the stress field of quenching on the head of
U71MnSteelHeavyRail.JournalofWuhanUniversityofScienceandTechnology.Vol.32No.1(2009):3236.

[4]

J.H.Kim,S.M.YouandStephenU.S.Choi.Evaporativespraycoolingofplainandmicroporouscoatedsurfaces.Heatand
MassTransfer.Volume47,Issues1416July2004:33073315

[5]

J.L Lin Chen, Fang Zhang, Zhiyang Zhang, Ran Wei. Organization Simulation Analysis of the U75V Cooling Process.
JournalofMetallurgicalEngineering.3(2014):33073315.

[6]

M Zhang.Computer simulation of temperature field and phase change of quenching at the end of the heavy
rail.Wuhan:WuhanUniversityofScienceandTechnology,2010.

[7]

W.KChen,HLuo,C.MZhang.Experimentalstudiesaboutthesmalltemperaturedifferencespraywallevaporation.
JournalofEngineeringThermalPhysics.Vol.28No.2(2007),p.277279.

17