CFD simulation of air quenching

Cardon Amandine - Safran Tech (France)

Today most of the heat treatment simulation is realized using heat transfer coefficients. This technique implies to identify these coefficients in the first place. To do that, representative geometries were instrumented and thermal coefficients were identified using the inverse method. In the future it would be interesting to use improved thermal flux at the interfaces of the parts and limit new instrumentation. In this context, CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) simulation is currently under maturity review. This work focuses on air quenching applied on nickel based alloy parts. Laboratory experiment were performed on an instrumented crescent disk using an air quenching chamber. Two different configurations were tested: the crescent was positioned directly under the nozzles blowing cool air and on the center of the chamber between the nozzles. CFD simulation was then performed for both configurations. Experimental and simulation results are compared and showed good results. An application on an industrial part being air quenched is also currently under investigation.