Source: Alexander S Rattner, Sanjay Adhikari, and Mahdi Nabil; Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA

Controlled heating followed by rapid cooling is an important element of many materials processing applications. This heat-treating procedure can increase material hardness, which is important for cutting tools or surfaces in high wear environments. The rapid cooling stage is called quenching, and is often performed by immersing materials in a fluid bath (often water or oil). Quenching heat transfer can occur due to forced convection - when the action of rapidly moving material through coolant drives the heat transfer process, and due to free convection - when the reduced density of hot fluid near the material surface causes buoyancy-driven circulation and heat transfer. At high material temperatures, the coolant can boil, leading to increased heat transfer effectiveness. However, when extremely hot materials are quenched, they can be blanketed in relatively low thermal conductivity coolant vapor, leading to poor heat transfer.

In this experiment, quenching heat transfer will be measured for a heated copper cylinder, which is representative of small heat-treated parts. The transient sample temperature profile will be measured during quenching and compared with theoretical results for free convection heat transfer. Boiling phenomena will also be investigated qualitatively.