Research on key technologies of FEM simulation of temperature field in the process of quenching

Abstract

In this paper, some key technologies of computing the quenching temperature field are given. According to the characteristics of quenching process, a new method of computing phase-transformation latent heat is presented to ensure the computation accuracy of temperature. The phase-transform latent heat is regarded as the internal heat source because it can result in the rise of temperature in the process of cooling. A new method of self-control and adaptive time-step is presented in this paper. This method can be used to compute the time-step according to maximum and minimum difference values of the temperature field between the previous simulating step and the current simulating step. A finite element method (FEM) software for evaluating the temperature and the phase-transformation is developed by using the methods presented in this paper, the lump parameters method and fine mesh method. The experimental results or analytical values of two cases are used to check the accuracy of FEM simulation. The comparisons show that the simulation results of FEM software are consistent with experimental results or analytical values.