Sensitivity of material properties on distortion and residual stresses during metal quenching processes

This research work investigates the influence of thermal, metallurgical and mechanical properties on the final distortion and residual stresses during metal quenching processes. The Finite Element Method (FEM) is employed to solve the coupled partial differential equations. The coupling effects such as phase transformation enthalpy, transformation-induced plasticity and dissipation are considered. The curvature and the volume averaged effective stresses are treated as a measure of distortion and residual stresses, respectively. Sensitivity analyses for the material parameters on the distortion and residual stresses are carried out. An L120×12L120×12 profile made of 100Cr6 steel is considered for the analyses. The sensitivity of the density, specific heat capacity, thermal conductivity, transformation start and end times, martensitic transformation coefficient, martensite start temperature, bulk modulus, shear modulus, yield strength and hardening modulus are of main concern in this work. It is found that reduced metallurgical properties, yield stress, and bulk modulus simultaneously lower the distortion and residual stresses for an equal cooling.