Wetting kinetics and cooling performance of PAG polymer quenchants

Abstract

The present research work is aimed at the estimation of quench severity Polyalkylene Glycol (PAG) polymer quenchants having varying concentrations. An Inconel600 probe instrumented with thermocouples was used for this purpose. The thermal history at various locations in the probe was used as an input to the inverse heat conduction model. The inverse analysis yields spatially dependent heat flux transients. The quench severity was assessed using the Grossmann technique. The wetting kinematics of quenching was studied by cooling curve analysis. The severity of quenching as measured by the Grossmann’s technique was found to be higher for polymer quenchants. However, the heat flux transients estimated by the inverse technique and rewetting times measured form the cooling curve analysis suggested comparable and uniform heat transfer with polymer quenchants compared to water quenchants. © (2015) Trans Tech Publications, Switzerland.