Faculty Publications
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Item Comparative study of heat transfer and wetting behaviour of conventional and bioquenchants for industrial heat treatment(2008) Fernandes, P.; Prabhu, K.N.An investigation was conducted to study the suitability of vegetable oils as bioquenchants for industrial heat treatment. The study involved the assessment of the severity of quenching and wetting behaviour of conventional and vegetable oil quench media. Quench severities of sunflower, coconut and palm oils were found to be greater than mineral oil. The quench severity of aqueous media is greater than oil media although their wettability is poor as indicated by their higher contact angles. A dimensionless contact angle parameter defined in this work is found to be a better parameter to compare the wetting behaviour with heat transfer. © 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.Item Quench severity and kinetics of wetting of vegetable oil blends and nanofiuid for heat treatment(2011) Jagannath, V.; Prabhu, K.N.In the present work, investigation was carried out to study the suitability of vegetable oil blends with mineral oil and alumina based nanofiuids as quench media for heat treatment. Palm oil, sunflower oil, gingili oil were blended with mineral oil in the ratio of 2:1, 3:1, 1:1, 1:2, and 1:3... Heat transfer coefficients were determined using a lumped heat capacitance model. A dynamic contact angle analyzer was used for determination of dynamic and static contact angle of the droplet on the substrate. The wetting behaviour of oils and their blends was modelled by a power law of the type: ? = ktn. Wettability of nanofiuids was found to be poor.Item Wetting Behavior and Heat Transfer of Aqueous Graphene Nanofluids(Springer New York LLC barbara.b.bertram@gsk.com, 2016) Nayak, U.V.; Prabhu, K.N.Aqueous graphene nanofluids having concentrations 0.01, 0.1, and 0.3 vol.% were used as heat transfer media during quenching of ISO 9950 inconel alloy probe. Contact angle measurements were carried out to assess the wettability of graphene nanofluids. Nanofluids showed better wettability compared to base water with over 16% reduction in their contact angles. The cooling performance of the quench media was assessed by cooling curve analysis during quenching of an instrumented inconel probe from 860 °C into the quench medium. Recorded temperature readings showed longer vapor phase stage during quenching with nanofluids. The severity of nanofluids was found to be lower relative to water. During quenching with nanofluids, the estimated spatiotemporal heat flux transients at the metal/quenchant interface showed that more heat was removed during the vapor phase stage of cooling. The present study brings out the possibility of using stable water-graphene nanoplatelet suspensions for quench heat treatment of steel components requiring cooling severity between water and oil/polymer quenchants. © 2016, ASM International.Item Estimation of spatially dependent heat flux transients during quenching of inconel probe in molten salt bath(ASTM International, 2017) Pranesh Rao, K.M.; Prabhu, K.N.Several industrial heat treatment processes, such as martempering and austempering, require a quench bath to be maintained at a temperature ranging between 150°C–600°C. Molten salts, molten alkali, and hot oils are the preferred quenchants for these processes. Molten salts and molten alkali are preferred over hot oil because they possess properties like wide operating temperature range, excellent thermal stability, and tolerance for contaminants. In the present work, the performance of a molten potassium nitrate (KNO3) quench bath was analyzed with an Inconel probe that measured 60 mm in height and 12.5 mm in diameter. The probe was heated to 850°C and subsequently quenched in a bath maintained at 450°C. Cooling curves at different locations of the probe were recorded using the K-type thermocouples inserted into the probe. Spatially dependent transient heat flux at the metal/quenchant interface was estimated using inverse heat conduction technique. The existence of two stages of quenching—boiling stage and convection stage—was confirmed by analyzing the heat flux. The heat transfer coefficient was calculated based on heat flux obtained by the inverse method. The nonuniformity in heat transfer along the length of the probe was quantified by calculating the range of surface temperatures at each instance. The hardness distribution in an AISI 4140 steel was predicted using the temperature distribution in the Inconel probe and obtained using inverse method. Uneven distribution of hardness predicted in the probe was attributed to the nonuniform cooling of the probe during quenching. © © 2017 by ASTM International.Item Effect of Bath Temperature on Cooling Performance of Molten Eutectic NaNO3-KNO3 Quench Medium for Martempering of Steels(Springer Boston, 2017) Pranesh Rao, K.M.; Prabhu, K.N.Martempering is an industrial heat treatment process that requires a quench bath that can operate without undergoing degradation in the temperature range of 423 K to 873 K (150 °C to 600 °C). The quench bath is expected to cool the steel part from the austenizing temperature to quench bath temperature rapidly and uniformly. Molten eutectic NaNO3-KNO3 mixture has been widely used in industry to martemper steel parts. In the present work, the effect of quench bath temperature on the cooling performance of a molten eutectic NaNO3-KNO3 mixture has been studied. An Inconel ASTM D-6200 probe was heated to 1133 K (860 °C) and subsequently quenched in the quench bath maintained at different temperatures. Spatially dependent transient heat flux at the metal–quenchant interface for each bath temperature was calculated using inverse heat conduction technique. Heat transfer occurred only in two stages, namely, nucleate boiling and convective cooling. The mean peak heat flux (qmax) decreased with increase in quench bath temperature, whereas the mean surface temperature corresponding to qmax and mean surface temperature at the start of convective cooling stage increased with increase in quench bath temperature. The variation in normalized cooling parameter t85 along the length of the probe increased with increase in quench bath temperature. © 2017, The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society and ASM International.Item A Comparative Study on Cooling Performance of Hot Oil and Molten Salt Quench Media for Industrial Heat Treatment(Springer, 2020) Pranesh Rao, K.M.; Prabhu, K.N.The present work presents a comprehensive comparative study on the cooling performance of hot oil and molten 54%KNO3-7%NaNO3-39%NaNO2 eutectic mixture quench media. The study was conducted using a cylindrical Inconel probe of 12.5 mm diameter and 60 mm length. Cooling curves at different locations in the probe were acquired and were subsequently used to calculate spatially dependent transient heat flux at the metal/quenchant interface. The heat extraction mechanism in hot oil and NaNO2 eutectic mixture was found to be different. Heat transfer occurred in two stages, namely boiling stage and convective cooling stage during quenching in molten NaNO2 eutectic mixture. In the case of hot oil, apart from these two stages, third stage of cooling, namely vapor blanket stage, was observed. A detailed study was conducted to compare the magnitude and uniformity of heat extraction during each stage of quenching. Molten salt offered a higher cooling rate and more spatial uniform cooling as compared to that obtained in hot oil quench medium. The non-uniformity in surface temperature during boiling stage in Inconel probe was ten times lower in molten salt medium as compared to that observed in the hot oil medium. However, the non-uniformity in surface temperature during convective cooling stage in both the media were comparable. Based on the distribution of characteristic cooling time (t85) calculated in quenched Inconel probe, higher and uniform hardness distribution is predicted in steel parts quenched in molten NaNO2 eutectic mixture media as compared to that in hot oil. © 2020, ASM International.Item Assessment of Cooling Performance of Neem Oil for Distortion Control in Heat Treatment of Steel(Springer, 2020) Pranesh Rao, K.M.; Prabhu, K.N.Growing concerns over the hazardous impact of mineral oil-based industrial quench media on human health and the environment have forced researchers to seek renewable and non-hazardous alternatives. Non-edible vegetable oil-based quench media are perceived to be a potential replacement for mineral-based industrial quench media. The present work focuses on assessing the cooling performance of neem oil as compared to commercial hot oil quench media. Inconel and steel probes were used to characterize the cooling performance of these quench media maintained at bath temperatures 100 °C, 150 °C and 200 °C. The heat extraction rates and uniformity of heat extraction in Inconel probes quenched in neem oil were observed to be substantially higher at all bath temperatures. The hardness of AISI 52100 steel probe quenched in neem oil at all bath temperatures was observed to be higher. The pearlitic microstructure was observed in the steel probe quenched in hot oil maintained at 200 °C bath temperature. In contrast to this, a mixture of bainite, martensite and carbide was observed in case of steel probes quenched in neem oil maintained at 200 °C. Oxidation experiments revealed that neem oil is susceptible to an increase in viscosity due to oxidation. An increase in the viscosity by about 15% was observed in the case of neem oil as compared to only 4% increase in viscosity of hot oil. However, after an initial increase, the viscosity of neem oil stabilized and further no significant change in viscosity due to oxidation were observed. Oxidation had no significant effect on the cooling performance hot neem oil quench medium, and thus, it can be considered as an effective replacement for hot oil. © 2020, ASM International.Item The effect of nanocoatings on critical heat flux (CHF) under pool boiling conditions(ASTM International, 2021) Reddy, S.; Prabhu, K.N.; Nayak, U.V.The effect of nanomaterial coating on heat transfer characteristics of a copper substrate during pool boiling with distilled water (>99.9 %) was studied. The peak on the pool boiling curve between nucleate and transition boiling is termed the critical heat flux. Multi-walled carbon nanotubes and graphene were used to obtain coatings on the copper substrate. Experiments were carried out at atmospheric pressure. The results showed enhanced critical heat flux for the coated substrates. Graphene-coated copper showed the highest critical heat transfer characteristics compared with that on bare and multi-walled carbon nanotube-coated substrates. The study has significant implications for the enhancement of heat transfer during quench heat treatment. © © 2021 by ASTM International.Item Numerical Simulation to Predict the Effect of Process Parameters on Hardness during Martempering of AISI4140 Steel(Springer, 2021) Pranesh Rao, K.M.P.; Prabhu, K.N.Martempering is a widely practiced industrial heat treatment process to harden steel parts with minimum distortion. A numerical experiment to predict hardness distribution in AISI 4140 steel cylinders of various diameters during martempering is presented in this work. Apart from the diameter (D), the effect of other process variables such as heat transfer coefficient (h), bath temperature (Tb), and residence time (tr) was also studied. The relationship between hardness distribution and the aforementioned process variables was highly nonlinear. An artificial neural network (ANN) model with a single hidden layer and 30 hidden layer neurons was thus developed to predict the hardness distribution in martempered AISI 4140 steel cylinders. The increase in bath temperature, diameter, and residence time decreased the average hardness, and an increase in the heat transfer coefficient increased the average hardness of martempered AISI 4140 cylinders. The weights of the ANN model were used to calculate the relative importance of all input variables and they followed a decreasing order of Tb>D>tr>h. © 2021, ASM International.