A theoretical approach for estimating the effect of water-jet quenching on low-carbon steel beams

Quenching is an efficient manufacturing technique to improve the strength of steel after hot rolling. The benefit of this application is to enhance the mechanical properties of steel products while reducing strengthening alloying elements, e.g., C, Mn, V, Nb, and N. Quenching and self-tempering (QST) especially for H-beams is a unique material strengthening process that adopts intensive surface cooling and self-tempering. A methodological difficulty in estimating the quenching effect has been a long-standing concern in the QST application. The purpose of this study was therefore to specify quenching parameters, quantify quenching, analyze the effect, and verify the credibility of the results. Transient quenching was simulated in ANSYS to analyze heat transfer and phase transformations due to quenching. An individual concept, e.g., heat exchange, cumulative quenching infiltration, or recalescence phenomena, was merged and interpreted newly for the quenching simulation. Computational results based on theoretical approaches were well consistent with empirical studies.