Development of a carburizing and quenching simulation tool: Numerical simulations of rings and gears

This paper describes a calculational procedure using the ABAQUS finite element code that simulates a carburizing and quench heat treat cycle for automotive gears. The procedure features a numerically efficient 2-phase constitutive model to represent transformational plasticity effects for the austenite/martensite transformation together with refined finite element meshes to capture the steep gradients in stress and composition near the gear surfaces. The procedure is illustrated on carburizing and quenching of a thick ring, and comparison of model predictions for distortion, phase distribution, and residual stress with experiment is discussed. Sensitivity of predictions to mesh refinement is studied