MODELING OF INDUCTION HARDENING PROCESS

PART 1: INDUCTION HEATING

Dr. Jiankun Yuan Prof. Yiming (Kevin) Rong

Acknowledgement: This project is partially supported by Delphi and CHTE at WPI. Dr. Q. Lu was involved in the early work of the project.
http://me.wpi.edu/~camlab

Induction: Why Induction Heat Treatment?

Advantages Greatly shortened heat treatment cycle Highly selective Highly energy efficiency Less-pollution process

Practical Problems Lack of systematic heating time and temperature distribution control inside WP. Nonlinear effect of material properties. Lack phase transformation data inside WP for hardness and residual stress determination. Evaluate combination effect of AC power density, frequency and gap on final hardness pattern. Trial and error, cost and design period.

Research content: FEM based electromagnetic/thermal analysis

Numerical modeling may provide better prediction + quenching analysis + hardening analysis

Research objective: (1) Provide T field, time history inside WP

(2) Determine formed content of martensite, pearlite and bainite. (3) Determine hardness distribution in WP. (4) Guidance for induction system design.

Introduction: Induction Hardening Process

Induction heating: metal parts heated to austenite Phase

Fast quenching process transforms austenite to martensite phase

workpiece

Inductor/coil

Martensite content determines the hardness Martensitic structure is the most hardest microstructure

Heating process Joule heat by eddy current Electromagnetic field High freq. AC power

Induction coil

Principle: Electromagnetic and Thermal Analysis

Electromagnetic Analysis
Input AC power to coil
Calculation of magnetic vector potential (A) Calculation of magnetic flux density (B) Calculation of magnetic field intensity (H) Calculation of electric field intensity (E) Calculation of electric field density (D) Calculation of current density (J) Calculation of Inducting heat (Qinduction)

WP

Coil

Thermal Analysis with finite element model

A=

0 I 4

dl r
(Gauss Law for magnetic field)

B=A
H=B/

(a) WP geometry
QN

(b) FEA model

QN QEt QE QR+ QCV (Outside)

E =

B t

(Faradays Law)

QW

QC QS

QB

D=E

QS

(c) Interior element

(d) Surface element

H =

D +J t

(Amperes Circuital Law)

Heat conduction

Qinduction = E J = J2/

c
c

T = k 2T + Qinduction t

Output: Heat generation Qinduction in WP

T 4 = k 2T + Qinduction A F T 4 Tair A h (T Tair ) t

Induced Joule heat

Heat radiation

Heat convection

Case Study: Complex Surface Hardening

Material: Carbon Steel, AISI 1070 Automotive parts from Delphi Inc., Sandusky,Ohio
concave convex

Concave and convex on surface of workpiece make the heating process not easy to control. ANSYS system is employed for the analysis. Mesh should be much finer at locations of convex and concave in both coil and workpiece.

Real spindle to be hardened

Geometry Model

FEA model and B.C.

Mesh generated by ANSYS

Case Study: Material Properties -- AISI 1070

(a) Electromagnetic Properties

conductivity WP relative permeability Electrical Resistivity

(b) Thermal Properties Emissivity Convection coefficient

Specific heat

Case Study: Magnetic Field Intensity Distribution

Effect of current density distribution

Constant current distribution in coil can not result in good heating pattern, especially at concaves of workpiece Better hardened pattern resulted from modification of Finer coil mesh and enhanced coil current density at area neighboring to surface concaves of workpiece. Enhanced coil current density suggests utilization of magnetic controller at those area in coil design process. Physically this can be fulfilled by magnetic controller.
(b1) Adjusted current distribution in coil (b2) heated pattern

(a1) Constant current distribution in coil

(a2) heated pattern

Case Study:Temperature Variation with Time in Induction Heating Process

t=0.5s
Total heating time th = 7.05s f=9600Hz s=1.27mm J=1.256e6 A/m2

t=2s

t=4s

Case Study: Heating Curves

Summary
A finite element method based modeling system is developed to analyze the coupled electromagnetic/thermal process in induction heating and implemented in ANSYS package, with following capabilities. Provide electrical and magnetic field strength distribution. Provide instantaneous temperature field data in workpiece. Provide Temperature history at any location in heating process. Provide guidance for inductor/coil design based on adjustment of current density distribution and desired heating patterns.