Title: Flow conditioning in heat treatment gas quenching

Authors: Thibaud Bucquet; Udo Fritsching

Addresses: IWT Bremen, Badgasteinerstr. 3, Bremen, 28359, Germany ' IWT Bremen, Badgasteinerstr. 3, Bremen, 28359, Germany

Abstract: Since its initial industrial applications, heat treatment gas quenching has undergone several technical improvements and a growing acceptance among conventional and innovative quenching techniques, however limited by the quenching medium to high-hardenable quenched parts. When assessing quenching processes to determine the ideal quenchant, knowing the proper process parameters is essential for given process and load dimensions. The present work aims at providing the necessary background to support the technical evolution and classification of heat treatment gas quenching. A combination of experimental and numerical methods, presented in this work, has helped understanding the mechanisms of heat transfer enhancement owing to flow conditioning around complex metal specimen geometries from the automotive industry. Flow conditioning strategies, at batch and single part scales, are presented in the conclusion of this paper.

Keywords: heat treatment; gas quenching; bevel gears; helical gears; computational fluid dynamics; CFD; simulation; flow conditioning; perforated plates; flow ducts; heat transfer; complex geometries; automotive gears; automobile industry.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMMP.2016.079151

International Journal of Microstructure and Materials Properties, 2016 Vol.11 No.3/4, pp.262 - 276

Received: 21 Dec 2015
Accepted: 23 Feb 2016
Published online: 14 Sep 2016 *

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