Development of ethylene glycol and clay based quench media for quench heat treatment

The present study investigates the cooling behavior of aluminum probes in ethylene glycol and clay based quench media to understand their effects on cooling rate and heat flux parameters. The quenching media used in the work included distilled water, ethylene glycol (EG) at concentrations of 5vol%, 10vol%, and 15vol%, and bentonite clay with different particle sizes of 45 ?m, 63 ?m, 90 ?m, and 105 ?m and varying weight concentrations of 0.01wt%, 0.1wt%, and 1wt%. Temperature-time data were acquired using a data acquisition system. Lumped Heat Capacitance Method (LHCM) was adopted analyze the cooling behaviour and estimate the heat flux parameters. The maximum peak heat flux transient and cooling rate were 1437 KW/m² and 578 °C/s respectively, and were achieved with the 5 vol% ethylene glycol quench medium. For the 63 ?m particle size bentonite clay quench medium, the maximum heat flux transient and cooling rate were 915 KW/m² and 368 °C/s respectively. It was observed that the heat transfer rate increases with higher weight concentrations of bentonite clay and decreases with higher volume concentrations of EG quench media. These findings suggest that both the type and concentration of quenching media significantly influence the cooling behaviour of the quench probe.