Role of Staggered-Array Water Jet on Intensive Quenching for Heat Treatment

Water impinging jet has been widely used in cooling/quenching of hot steel plate. The role of staggered-array water jet on intensive quenching are experimentally investigated at fixed jet Reynolds number of 35,000 and nozzle-to-plate distance of 100 mm. The heat transfer characteristics were measured by a novel experimental technique that has a function of high-temperature heat flux gauge. The maximum area-averaged heat flux was observed at S/D = 3. This is caused by the radial interaction between adjacent jets which affects different boiling heat transfer on a hot surface. The maximum cooling rate at the surface reaches 600°C/sec during water jet quenching. This study is motivated by the fact that a design of intensive quench process requires the role of staggered-array water impinging jet on heat transfer characteristics. Finally the current study is to provide quantitative local and average heat transfer characteristics of the staggered-array water jet quenching.