Heat transfer during immersion quenching in MWCNT nanofluids

Abstract

Quench heat treatment consists of rapid cooling of steel alloys after austenetization by subjecting them to cooling in a suitable cooling medium. At the heart of quench treatment is the transient heat transfer that occurs between the metal surface and the quenchant at their interface. This governs the quality of the component as it influences phase transformation, residual quench stresses and mechanical properties developed. In the present research work, spatially dependent transient heat flux in the axial direction was estimated using cooling curve analyses coupled with inverse heat conduction technique. A standard Inconel 600 probe instrumented with multiple thermocouples and heated to 865�C was quenched in distilled water (DW) and DW based multi walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) quench media. For evaluating the cooling performance, nanoquenchants with concentrations of 0.01, 0.1 and 1.0g/lt. were prepared. The cooling rate curve calculated from the measured temperature at the geometric center of the probe and the estimation of spatially dependent heat fluxes showed that the heat extraction during quenching with MWCNT nanoquenchant (0.1g/lt.) was higher than the other quenchants. The measured values of thermal conductivity and viscosities of quenchants did not show any significant variation. � (2015) Trans Tech Publications, Switzerland.