A Mathematical Framework for Simulation of Thermal Processing of Materials: Application to Steel Quenching

During thermal processing, parts are usually subjected to continuous heating and cooling cycles during which microstructural and mechanical evolutions occur simultaneously at different length and time scales. Modeling of these processes necessitates dealing with inherent complexities such as large material property variations, complex couplings and domains, combined heat and mass transfer mechanisms, phase transfor-mations, and complex boundary conditions. In this study, a finite element method based mathematical framework capable of predicting temperature history, evolution of phases and internal stresses during ther-mal processing of materials was developed. The model was integrated into the commercial FE software MSC.Marc r © by user subroutines. The accuracy of the model was verified by simulating the quenching of hollow steel cylinders. Simulation results were compared with SEM observations and XRD residual stress measurements. According to the results, the model can effectively predict the trends in the distribution of microstructure and residual stresses with remarkable accuracy