Simulation of quenching and tempering of steels

An efficient simulation method, which includes microstructure, temperature and stress analysis applicable to both quenching and tempering processes, is developed and implemented using the commercial FEM package ABAQUS. This simulation encompasses phase transformations and their effects on the temperature distribution and stress/strain evolution, including the dependency of material properties on temperature and microstructure, transformation strains, latent heats and transformation plasticity. Three different multi-phase constitutive models, namely the average property model, the Voigt model and the Reuss model, have been implemented. The average property model is based on the linear mixture of material properties of different phase, while the Voigt model assumes the same strain field in all phases and the Reuss model assumes the iso-stress field. The simulation model has been applied to quenching and tempering of modified 4320 steel. Experiments of tempering and quenching on carburized circular plates of the same steel have been performed. The calculated distortion and residual stress profiles are in good agreement with corresponding measurements made in experiments and thus verifies the correctness of the model. The simulation model developed in this study is a useful design tool for quenching and tempering as well as machining of steels.