Quench Tank Agitation Design through CFD Simulation

Quenching is a key step in most heat treating operations. Sufficient velocity is required to achieve the desired material properties, while even flow is needed to ensure low distortion and good part uniformity. It is not intuitively obvious, however, which agitation method will best achieve those goals.  Computational fluid modeling techniques can provide the insight needed to evaluate potential agitation design and ultimately develop a robust agitation system.

For a shallow quench tank with submerged impellers, a number of different concepts for providing agitation to a load of ring-like parts were investigated. Design parameters included the number and arrangement of the impellers, baffles and turning vanes, and the rotational direction of the impellers. The final design provided agitation that was significantly improved over the initial concept.