SIMULATION OF QUENCHING AND TEMPERING PROCESS IN SAE 1060 STEEL BAR USING POLYMERS QUENCHANT

Abstract Quenching fluids such as polymers are still under investigation and need to be characterized to improve the accuracy of the simulation results. This work aims to contribute to the optimization of the simulation process in the heat treatment industry. Cooling curves of a polyalkylene glycol (PAG) polymer solution at a concentration of 10 %, and a polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) polymer solution at 6 % of concentration, using moderate agitation and a fluid temperature of 38 °C were acquired and analyzed under the ASTM D6482 method. The results of the cooling curves were used to calculate the heat transfer coefficient (HTC), and the HTC charts were used as boundary conditions for quenching step. The commercial software SIMHEAT® from Transvalor was used to predict hardness in as quenched and tempered conditions, microstructure also was calculated. Bars of SAE 1060 steel were heat treated; the bars were heated up at 875 Celsius and were held for 25 minutes and quenched in the polymers solution as mentioned above; tempering temperature was held at 454 Celsius for 30 and 60 minutes. Finally, hardness and metallography were performed on the bars for both polymer conditions and compared against the simulation results.