Analysis of the Residual Stress and Deformation in a Steel Tube due to Quenching Process Using Different Media

Steel tubes are widely used in industries as machine components and are most common in heavily loaded mechanisms subjected to high dynamic torsional and compressive stress. Hence, they should have higher strength than that of the conventional mechanisms to resist failure. Quenching, an industrial heat treatment process, can improve the microstructure, hardness, toughness, and corrosion and wear resistance of materials. Steel tubes, if quenched, would have desired properties to serve the purposes. However, besides improving material properties, quenching generates some residual stress and deformation in the material due to rapid temperature drop and phase transformation. Therefore, to estimate the temperature distribution, residual stress, and deformation computationally; a three-dimensional fluid-structure interaction model is developed for the steel tube with different quenchants. The quenching characteristics by water, brine, and propylene glycol are estimated and compared with each other. The time-varying nodal temperature distributions in the tube are observed and the critical regions are identified having maximum residual stress and deformation. The time-varying residual stress and deformation at a particular point and along the axial and radial directions of the tube are studied. The convergence of the model is checked and validation of the model is done.