Experimental Investigation of Influence of Dissolved Salts and Surfactant on Heat Transfer in Atomized Spray Quenching of Metal

Spray quenching is widely used in industrial applications. In atomized spray quenching (ASQ), water and air are supplied to the nozzle at a certain flow rate and pressure to produce a full cone spray consisting of discrete droplets. Impingement density of spray i.e. coolant mass flow per unit area per second is considered to be the most influential parameter for heat transfer. Impingement density varies with radius and so as the heat flux. Water quality is altered by adding five different salts i.e. NaCl, Na₂SO₄, NaHCO₃, Na₂CO₃, and MgSO₄ in de-ionized water with various concentrations. On the other hand, a surfactant Ethoxylated ester, which is commonly added in cooling water in cast houses of metals, is added to pure water in different concentrations i.e 50, 100, 200 and 500ppm. A circular disc made of Nickel of thickness 2mm is heated to 600°C and sprayed on one side by atomized spray and the temperature distribution with respect to time is measured using Infrared camera on the other side of the disc. By this IR thermography, transient temperature measurement can be done within the window of 320×80 pixels with a minimum pixel real distance of 1mm on the sheet surface. Frequency of measurement is 150Hz. Since the temperature measurement and cooling sides are opposite at 2mm thickness apart, inverse heat conduction problem is solved by applying finite element method for calculating temperature and heat flux on the quenched side of metal sheet with respect to space and time. It has been observed that increasing the concentration of salts increase the leidenfrost point and shortens the film boiling regime. While addition of surfactants decrease the leidenfrost point and prolong the film boiling regime. Maximum heat flux position is considered as the wetting front position. There is an abrupt variation of heat flux at wetting front position due to the change of boiling phenomenon. Wetting front velocity has been compared for salt solutions, surfactant and de-ionized or pure water.