Simulation of Distortion during Quenching Process

Heat treatment operations are commonly used to modify the mechanical properties of steel alloy components in the energy and transportation industries. Large rings are manufactured from steel billets. They are upset and pierced, prior to be hot rolled. After being rolled at forging temperature, rings are heat treated (i.e. normalized, quenched and tempered).  During this processing some rings, especially those with a large outer diameter to wall thickness ratio, become distorted. In this work the prediction of geometric distortion during quenching process of 4140 steel was evaluated. A commercial finite element package Deform^TM was used to couple the thermal structural response during quenching considering phase transformation. The mechanical and thermal properties were obtained using JMatPro (Java-based Material Properties) software. This methodology will help to control geometric distortion in order to get more accurate dimensions of rings.