Stress and Deformation During Induction Hardening of Tubular Products

Simulation of stresses and deformation during induction hardening is complicated. This paper is a follow on modeling work of induction hardening process presented at 26^th HTS in Cincinnati, in October 2011 and UIE Congress in St. Petersburg, Russia, in May 2012.  The previous studies were devoted to stress and deformation evolution during a single shot and scan induction hardening process, and the current paper focuses on comparison of these cases and on the methods of stress control in hardening of tubular products. Software ELTA is used to calculate the power and temperature distributions in terms of time from the induction heating process. The power distribution as a function of heating time is imported into DANTE to drive the model. The modeling results include the temperature distribution, phase transformations, stress state and deformation. The detailed coupling procedure between electromagnetic, thermal, stress and deformation phenomena during induction tube hardening is described.

The coupled modeling studies allow us to analyze effect of basic process parameters on the formation of stresses and deformation, which make it possible to optimize the process to reduce the cracking possibility, obtain specific microstructure and favorable residual stresses.