preprints.org > engineering > metallurgy and metallurgical engineering > doi: 10.20944/preprints202401.1096.v1

Preprint Article Version 1 Preserved in Portico This version is not peer-reviewed

Version 1 : Received: 12 January 2024 / Approved: 15 January 2024 / Online: 15 January 2024 (08:03:53 CET)

This work presents a heat transfer and boiling model that computes the evolution of the temperature field in a representative steel workpiece quenched from 850 or 930°C by immersion in water flowing at average velocities of 0.2 or 0.6 m/s, respectively. Under these conditions, all three boiling regimes were present during cooling: stable vapor film, nucleate boiling, and single-phase convection. The model was based on the numerical solution of the heat conduction equation coupled to the solution of the energy and momentum equations for water. The mixture phase approach was adopted using the Lee model to compute the rates of water evaporation-condensation. Heat flux at the wall was calculated for all regimes using a single semi-mechanistic model. Therefore, evolution of boiling regimes at every position on the wall surface was automatically determined. Predictions were validated using laboratory results, namely: a) Videorecording the upward motion of the wetting front along the workpiece wall surface, and b) cooling curves obtained with embedded thermocouples in the steel probe. Wall heat flux calculations were used to determine the importance of the simultaneous presence of all three boiling regimes on the heat flux distribution. It was found that this simultaneous presence leads to high heat flux variations that should be avoided in production lines.

Convective boiling simulation; modeling boiling regimes; quenching heat flux; wet front velocity; cooling curves prediction

Engineering, Metallurgy and Metallurgical Engineering

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