L. Chuzhoy, J. Cai, Caterpillar Inc., Mossville, IL; A. A. Hattiangadi, M. L. Johnson, Caterpillar Inc., Peoria, IL

Summary: During heat treatment of steel, required microstructure and properties can be obtained by quenching in a suitable medium. To accurately estimate the residual stress after heat treatment, it is essential to capture the phase transformation mechanisms which lead to microstructure changes during the quench process. An explicit microstructure based unit cell model is used to capture mechanical response of steel for different stages of phase transformation. The material response is then used as input for a global model to simulate the quenching process and obtain residual stress during phase transformation from austenite to martensite. The simulation results will be compared to residual stresses measured at Caterpillar and those found in the literature for 4140 steel.