Etd

Characterization of the performance of mineral oil based quenchants using CHTE Quench Probe System

Public

Downloadable Content

open in viewer

The performance of a series of mineral oil based quenchants has been investigated using the CHTE Quench Probe System and probe tips of 4140 steel to determine the cooling rate, heat transfer coefficient, Hardening Power (HP) and Tamura’s V indices in terms of the physical properties of quenchants; e.g. viscosity and oil start temperature. The Quench Factor, Q, was also calculated in terms of the hardness of the quenched parts. The lumped parameter approximation was used to calculate the heat transfer coefficient as a function of temperature during quenching. The results revealed that the maximum cooling rate increases with decrease in quenchant viscosity. As viscosity increases, Tamura’s V is nearly constant, while the HP decreases. For the selected oils, cooling ability of quenching oil increases with the increase in oil operating temperature, reaches a maximum and then decreases. The heat transfer coefficient increases with the increase in hardening power and maximum cooling rate. As the viscosity increases, the quench factor increases, which indicates the cooling ability of the oil decreases since the higher quench factor means the lower cooling ability of the oil. The hardness decreases with the increase in quench factor. Also the effect of surface oxides during quenching in commercial oils is studied. It was found that for 4140 steel probes the formation of oxide in air increases the cooling rate and heat transfer coefficient, the cooling rate curve of 4140 steel probe heated in argon shows clear Leidenfrost temperature, the oxide layer may require a significant thickness to cause the decrease in heat transfer coefficient. For 304 stainless steel probes the cooling rate and heat transfer coefficient are quite similar in air and in argon.

Creator
Contributors
Degree
Unit
Publisher
Language
  • English
Identifier
  • etd-0823102-180115
Keyword
Advisor
Committee
Defense date
Year
  • 2002
Date created
  • 2002-08-23
Resource type
Rights statement
Last modified
  • 2023-11-07

Relations

In Collection:

Items

Items

Permanent link to this page: https://digital.wpi.edu/show/z029p4825