Mechanical Engineering Department
Materials Science & Engineering

Current Research Projects 2003

Computer Aided Heat Treatment Planning Systems for Continous Furnaces

Advisor:

Y. Rong

Students:

Rohit Vaidya, Weiwei Wang, Rahul Jian

Description:

Heat treatment is one important manufacturing process to control the microstructure and mechanical properties of mechanical parts. A computer-aided heat treatment planning system (CAHTPS) fro batch furnaces has been developed. The objective of the project is to develop an analytical tool for guiding the part load design, load moving speed decision and temperature control through the heat transfer analysis in continuous furnaces, then to optimize the heat treatment process design, and finally to save energy and reduce cost.

Induction Hardening Process Modeling and Simulation

Advisor:

Prof. Rong

Participants:

Dr. Jiankun Yuan

Description:

Induction hardening is an important manufacturing process to control the mechanical properties of metal parts where surface hardness is enhanced while the core retains the toughness. This project studies the modeling and simulation of the induction hardening processes with the finite element analysis (FEA) method. A coupled electromagnetic-thermal model is applied to the induction heating process. The temperature distributions in parts are obtained in heating and cooling. The induction heating and quenching are highly nonlinear processes because the materials properties of the parts are temperature dependent. The final hardening processes involve the determination of Martensite volume content and hardness value. An algorithm is utilized to determine the volume fraction of diffusion controlled phase transformation and the Martensite content. Finally, the hardness value is converted from Martensite content.
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Last modified: October 11, 2006 16:36:32