ABSTRACT
Heat treatment is an essential process in the manufacture of high-performance steel and other alloy components. Jominy end quench test is used to study the hardenability and microstructure growth in metal alloys when subjected to heat treatment. This is of significance to the manufacturing industry as it provides useful information, allowing selection of appropriate heat treatment procedures. An austenized cylinder is cooled with a fluid jet from one end, causing differential cooling, and resulting in varying properties along the length. This paper presents a manufacturability assessment tool for determination of hardenability of metal alloy components. Jominy test is simulated using a CFD approach as a conjugate heat transfer problem instead of conventional approaches that utilize estimations of the heat transfer rate. The model captures the problem physics by evaluating the temperature and velocity behavior. Cooling rate was found to be highly sensitive to jet velocity, increasing with increase in velocity. Oil was tried as a quenchant in the study and showed slower cooling rates as expected. This approach can be extended to achieve accurate results for cooling rates for complex parts and novel quenching procedures. This was demonstrated by studying the effect of inlet velocity and quenchant type on the cooling behavior.