Integrated Computational Materials Engineering: Lessons from Many Fields

Edited by: Deborah Whitis

TMS (The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society), 2007

Computer Aided Heat Treatment Planning System for Quenching and Tempering

Lei zhangl*, Radhakrishnan ~umshothamanl,Yiming ~ o n ~Jinwu

' , ~ a n ~Amarjit
' , Kumar singhl

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Department of Mechanical Engineering, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, MA 0 1609

Keywords: Heat treatment; Heat treatment planning system; Finite Difference Method; Quenching;
Tempering

Abstract
Furnaces are widely used for the heat treatment of mass production parts. So to optimize the heat
treating process is of great significance, and will greatly takes the advantage to save energy. In this
paper, an analytical tool "Computerized Heat Treating and Planning System for Quenching and
Tempering" has been developed, which is to predict the temperature profile of load in batch as well as
continuous furnace during heating, quenching and tempering of steel, then to provide information about
the mechanical properties as Quenched and Tempered and finally to optimize the heat treatment process
design with the aim to save energy and reduce cost. This tool is suitable for heat treating plants,
workshops and also captive heat treaters. The calculation is the hybrid of numerical simulation and
empirical equations. Therefore it is convenient for heat treating industry and furnace manufacturing.

1. Introduction

Heat treatment can be defined as a combination of heating and cooling operations applied to a metal or
alloy in solid state. It is an important manufacturing process, which controls the mechanical properties
of metals, therefore contributes to the product quality.

Heat treatment industry has 15 billion dollars business in USA. Meanwhile it is also of the main energy
consumer. Most heat treating processes have the heating process in furnace as the first step. There the
microstmcture and mechanical properties undergo changes and most of energy is consumed. However,
currently, the heating process is mainly based on experience. Therefore, the heat transfer simulation in
heat treatment furnace is of great importance for the prediction and control of the ultimate
microstmcture and properties of the workpieces and reduction of energy consumption. Studies have
been done to simulate the heating process of workpieces in heating furnace, such as reheating furnace of
billet, bar and slab which are of rectangular or round sections in rolling and steel plants Some work
mainly focus on the combustion problem in boiler or combustor, while the heat transfer between heat
resource and load is simple [5-s1. However, there are few studies exactly about the simulation of the heat
treatment processes of castings, forgings or machined workpieces, which are very popular in
automotive, machinery and equipment manufacturing industries. These kinds of workpieces are usually
of complicated shape and many workpieces are processed in a load in furnace. Therefore the heat
transfer between furnace and workpieces, among workpieces and inside workpieces are very
complicated. In previous study, a method was given to calculate the heating time for workpieces with
arbitrary shape [91. However, the study is based on unchanged furnace temperature.

* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: lzhang@wpi.edu.(Lei ZHANG).

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In order to optimize the heat treating process, a computerized tool is desired to simulate the thermal
process as well as the microstmcture evolution of the steel materials, therefore the heat treating process
parameters can be optimally determined to ensure the materials property as required, and at the same
time the production cycle time can be minimized so that the manufacturing cost and energy consumption
can be reduced. In previous years, the thermal analysis models for loaded furnace, CHT-bf for batch
furnaces and CHT-cf for continuous furnaces, have been developed and validated for modeling and
simulating the heating up process [10-121. When the part and part load is given with specified furnace
information, the temperature profiles of the load are computed for the parts both on the surface and in
the core, as well as in different location of the furnace. The temperature profiles are compared against
the given thermal schedule to evaluate if the soaking time is necessary and sufficient to ensure the
quality of the materials property control. With the help of using CHT-bflcf, the alternative load designs
and thermal schedule determination can be evaluated for optimal solutions.

But CHT-bflcf only has heating process model. In this paper, in order to expanded CHT-bf and CHT-cf
into an entire heat treating process to estimate the materials property change during and after the heat
treating process, a computerized heat treatment planning system for quenching and tempering of steel,
CHT-qlt, has been developed. CHT-qlt is developed based on CHT-bflcf It includes the simulation
model of quenching and tempering process for predicting the temperature profile of load in batch as well
as continuous furnace during heating, quenching and tempering of steel. The microstmcture evolution
during the thermal process is simulated based on the analysis of the cooling rate at different location of
the workpiece and the phase transformation during the cooling process. Finally the mechanical
properties, mainly the hardness distribution, are estimated based on the resultant microstmcture. The
relationship between hardness and other properties, such as ultimate tensile strength, yield strength,
toughness and elongation, is shown based on empirical knowledge found in literature.

2. Mathematical Model Development

In heat treatment processes, the heat transfer processes involve three modes: the radiation, conduction
and convection, as well as the furnace model. To simplify, the following assumptions are made:
The furnace temperature is uniform. The furnace serves as a heating resource and heat
storage as well.
Atmosphere temperature is uniform and is the same as furnace.

2.1 Radiation

In the heat treatment processes of workpieces, there are two kinds of radiation heat transfer: from
furnace to workpieces and from workpieces to workpieces.

The radiation between furnace and the outside layer of a workpiece:

where o is the Stenfan-Boltzmann constant, E is emissivity, Fvw0e is the view factor of workpiece to
furnace, A is the exposure surface area of the workpiece, Tf,, and T w p are the temperatures of furnace and
workpiece respectively.

The radiation between the outside layer of the workpiece and workpiece:

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where F ~ w p l ~ w pis2 the view factor of workpiece 1 to workpiece 2, TWp1 and Twp2 are the temperatures of
worpiece 1 and workpiece 2 respectively.

The view factors of workpieces to furnace and of workpieces to workpieces can be estimated by the load
pattern [ l l . 121

2.2 Convection and cooling model

The convection heat transfer between furnace and the workpiece, and between workpiece and quenchant
is denoted as follows:

Qconv = 'conv . A . ('fie - Twp (44

Qconv = 'quent . A . (Twp - Tquent )

where hcon, is the convection film coefficient, which can be calculated by following equation:

where L* is the characteristic length, L* = A1/2. Nu,, is the Nusselt number. It is related to the
geometrical features of workpiece, load pattern, thermal properties of atmosphere and circulation fan.
The calculations of Nu,, are different for natural convection and forced convection ["' 12]. Heat transfer
coefficient can be determined by experimental approach.

2.3 Conduction model

Fourier equation for the conduction in the solid, such as workpiece, furnace walls, fixtures, and trays/
baskets is given as

2.4 Furnace model

The furnace model contains the PID (Proportional, Integral and Derivative) control, available heat for
gas-fired furnaces, and heat terms such as heat input by fan, heat loss from furnace door and walls, heat
storage in the furnace wall and auxiliaries and heat loss by cooling tubes for some special furnaces. The
effective heat input is

where KpID is the PID control coefficient, KAHis the available heat coefficient, Qgrossis the gross heat
input, At is the time step.
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The heat storage in the furnace wall can be calculated by

where Qgro,, is the heat loss, Qgro,,is the heat storage in load, and Qgrossis the heat input by fan. hen
the furnace temperature is calculated as follows:

fce

7 '= Q:tol , 1 C MI, cPl

where nfi, is the total number of furnace wall and auxiliaries, w ,and cp, are the weight and specific heat
of the furnace auxiliaries.

2.5 Microstructure and ~ r o ~ e r t i ere

s diction model

In the transformation model the progress of transformation for the diffusion reactions is followed by an
Avrami-Johnson-Mehl equation, assuming additivity, while the fraction of martensite formed is modeled
as a function of holding temperature below the martensite start temperature.

For the diffusion phase transformations of austenite to ferrite and pearlite, the formation of a new phase
on cooling is only possible once the temperature is below the equilibrium transformation temperature.
This temperature is dependent on the alloy content of the steel.

The kinetics of the growth of ferrite and pearlite are described using the Avrami-Johnson-Mehl equation
WI.

where w is the volume fraction of austenite transformed, b and n are the coefficient and exponent of the
austenite transformation kinetics, t is the time, and t, is the start time.

The values of b and n are evaluated from the given TTT diagram except for ferrite for which it is
assumed that n = 1. More generally it can be stated that:

where the subscripts s and f indicate start and finish, respectively. In a TTT diagram, w s is usually
chosen to be 1% and i f ' ,99%, but other percentages may also be chosen.

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The volume fraction of martensite is then modeled using an equation proposed by Koistinen and
Marburger [4].

Below the martensite start temperature Ms, it is assumed that the remaining austenite is transformed into
martensite according to equation as:

where W M is the transformed volume fraction of austenite into martensite, MS is the martensite start
temperature, Mf is the martensite finish temperature, and T is the transformation temperature, T I MS.

It can be observed from the above equations, to calculate b, n and w we need only Ts and tffrom the TTT
diagram, and t from the cooling curve.

The properties of the steel are determined by their microstmcture. Various equations are used to map
the properties of steels based on their microstmctures.

Since hardness is a function of % Martensite as well as % carbon content (Fig. I), thus regression
analysis is being used to get the hardness at a specific martensitic percentage.

Hsrdngss
HRC

Figure 1: Relationship between hardness, carbon content

and amount of martensite [I4'

Hardness=f(C%, Martensite%), i.e.,

where x--C%, a, b, c are constants, which can be obtained from the relationship shown in Fig. 1

Ultimate Tensile Strength, Yield Stress, Toughness and Elongation are all related to Hardness, and some
of these relationships are available in the literatures. Therefore, an approach is to build a database using
the data from handbooks and literature and use some empirical relations to populate the database and is
used to properties prediction in CHT-qlt.

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operations in CHT-q/t.

BE1
Workpiece

k o t t r i c ~&l I T T prolilc D9

Fuir
082

083
DB

ALrucspiieic DB
+
1
-
3. Design of Computer-aided Heat Treatment Planning System-CHT-qlt

Fig. 2 shows the function flow-chart, which is the schematic representation of the sequence of

Furnace
Initial condition

Module 1
Load pattern

Workp~ecec l a s s ~ f ~ c a t ~&oenmeshment

Module 2
Heat~ng
n
Workp~eceshape c l a s s ~ f ~ c a t ~ o n
Enmeshment by Blot no

1
Thermal schedule

Heatterm &
4'

I Module 3
Cooling
I
Heat transfer for gas quenching in same furnace
used in heating

workpiece and inside

Heat transfer for gas quenching in different the workpiece
furnace

II II
-
Heat transfer for oil quenching in tank
(load v ~ i t hfixture, single v~orkpiecewithout fixture)

II Module 4
Phase transformation prediction
II / n l l m ,r \
V U L W U L V

(Austenite to pearlite I bainite I martensite)

Comparing cooling curve with TTT diagram to
hfechanical
after Quenching
determine microstructure
Mapping of microstructure to properties I u

Module 5 Output 4
Tempering Heat term &
Heating below austenizing temperature temperatures

D8 6
Module 6
Tcrr trirlr, p ope tico Property pred~ct~on
by e m p ~ r ~ cequat~ons
al
CB after Tempering

Figure 2: Function flow-chart of CHT-qlt

CHT-q/t contains four basic operations. Heating: consists of heating the parts in batch as well as
continuous furnace. Cooling: can be done in batch furnace, continuous furnace and in tank. Quenching:

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is a rapid cooling of metals from an elevated temperature to a low temperature. In CHT-q/t, gas and
liquid quenching of the entire load has been considered. Gas quenching can be done in the same furnace
used in heating or in a different furnace particularly used for quenching. Tank is used for liquid
quenching. Tempering: can be defined as a process, which consists of heating hardened steel to a
temperature below the lower critical temperature, and followed by cooling in air or at any desired rate.

CHT-q/t utilizes several databases to facilitate the thermal analysis, microstmcture evolution analysis,
and property estimation. DB1 - Material Database: Along with material name, material type, thermal
properties such as density, specific heat, conductivity, emissivity etc., this database contains the
materials TTT diagrams in tabular format for all the materials going to be heat-treated. DB2 - Furnace
Database: It consists of different kind of furnaces (both batch and continuous) for heating and
quenching. It also includes tank used for liquid quenching. DB3 - Atmosphere Database: It contains the
atmosphere present inside the furnace. DB4 - Quenchant Database: The quenchant database contains the
quenchant types, including the physical properties of the quenchants such as viscosity, boiling point,
latent heat of vaporization, density and specific heat capacity. It also consists of the convective heat
transfer coefficient "h" vs. blower horse power. DB5 - Tempering Properties Database: It contains the
empirical relations needed to predict the phase transformation and properties after tempering.

4. Case studies - results and discussion

The system has been applied to the focus group members of Center for Heat Treating Excellence
(CHTE), WPI. Here two case studies are given.

4.1 Case 1

This case study is oil quenching of a huge part, which weighed 2580 lbs (Fig. 3). The part was heated in
the Pit furnace for almost 900 minutes and was moved from the pit furnace using an overhead crane and
was quenched in this tank.

Figure 3: Workpiece in the furnace and the thermocouple

locations

CHT-qlt 3D model was used to calculate this case. The calculation space step used here was 2 in., which
can save calculation time, therefore 2016 elements was obtained by enmeshing the part. The total
calculating time is around l0min. and the results were shown below.

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 Figure 4: Comparison of results between calculated and measured during process

The calculating temperature profiles were plotted in Fig. 4 with the measured results. From the start of
heating stage, the calculation temperature increase almost as quickly as the measurement shows. They
almost get to the high temperature at the same time. The temperature error is within 30 OF, and the
relative error is around 3%. Then quenching starts, the inside temperature was measured. It is observed
that the prediction results match very well with the measurements from the quenching start.

The temperature profiles plotted in CHT-qlt interface is shown on Fig. 5. And the predicted properties in
a part section are displayed in Fig. 6.

Figure 5: Cooling curves with TTT diagram Figure 6: HI3 Hardness distribution on the part
surface (front view)

4.1 Case 2

This is high pressure quenching case using argon with 12 bar Turbo treater. The workpiece is a cylinder
with 1.125" diameter by 4" long, weighted 21bs, and is made of Alloy Steel 4340. Fig. 7 shows the load
pattern.

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 Figure 7: Arrangement of workpieces in the basket and the thermocouple locations

The parts were arranged in vertically in the basket as shown in the Fig. 7. And 3 thermocouple were
attached to the load 2 were inside the probe and one right next to the workpiece to measure the gas
temperature during the process. The load was quenched from 850 "C to the room temperature. In this
case totally 3840 elements was obtained, and it ran around 15 min.

The calculatiilg results are displayed in Fig 8, it is 1 e n clear that all the parts are fast cooled almost at the saine
rate. and the! are also ver! n ell nhen compared with the ineasured results.

Figure 8: Comparison of results between calculated and measured during the quench
process

5. Conclusions

CHT-qlt developed based on CHT-bflcJ; it includes the simulation model of quenching and tempering
process to predict the temperature profile of load in batch as well as continuous furnace during heating,
quenching and tempering of steel, then to provide information about the mechanical properties as
quenched & tempered based on the cooling rate and phase transformation analysis, and finally to
optimize the heat treatment process design with the aim to save energy and reduce cost.

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Two case studies are presented, which shows the calculated results are basically in agreement with the
measured one and reasonable.

Acknowledgement

The authors are grateful to the help for case studies from Bodycote Thermal Processing, American Heat
Treating, Sousa Corporation.

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