Numerical investigation of quenching technique for steel alloy hardening process using twins liquid jets

Abstract

Quenching is one of the most common phenomena for hardening steel. The present study is focused on investigating the hardening of stainless-steel plates by single as well as twin liquid jets. To this end, flow interaction of twin jets on hot stainless-steel plate and consequent thermal characteristics (especially temperature profile) on the latter has been studied via commercial CFD software, ANSYS FLUENT 18. A steady-state, two- dimensional, and turbulent (standard k-epsilon) model has been developed by taking jet-based Reynolds number ranges between 3800 and 17,000 for the different nozzle to stainless steel plate distance, whereas the latter’s temperature is fixed for 700 °C in the beginning. The results were compared with the help of stagnation heat transfer coefficient, stagnation Nusselt number, and turbulence effect near hot plate for the different nozzle to plate distance. Fluid interaction from twin jets also affects the cooling phenomena strongly, especially at the stagnation point. The local variation of heat transfer at the stagnation point was qualitatively different for different nozzle outlet velocity profiles near the plate.