Determination of Proper Processing Conditions of Material Surface Heat Treatment Through Finite Element Method

A two-dimensional model has been developed based on the experimental results of stainless steel remelting with the laminar plasma technology to investigate the transient thermo-physical characteristics of the melt pool liquids. The influence of the temperature field, temperature gradient, solidification rate and cooling rate on the processing conditions has been investigated numerically. Not only have the appropriate processing conditions been determined according to the calculations, but also they have been predicted with a criterion established based on the concept of equivalent temperature area density (ETAD) that is actually a function of the processing parameters and material properties. The comparison between the resulting conditions shows that the ETAD method can better predict the optimum condition.

Three-Dimensional Modeling of Heat Transfer and Fluid Flow in Laminar-Plasma Material Re-Melting Processing

Modeling study is performed concerning the heat transfer and fluid flow for a laminar argon plasma jet impinging normally upon a flat workpiece exposed to the ambient air. The diffusion of the air into the plasma jet is handled by using the combined-diffusion-coefficient approach. The heat flux density and jet shear stress distributions at the workpiece surface obtained from the plasma jet modeling are then used to study the re-melting process of a carbon steel workpiece. Besides the heat conduction within the workpiece, the effects of the plasma-jet inlet parameters (temperature and velocity), workpiece moving speed, Marangoni convection, natural convection etc. on the re-melting process are considered. The modeling results demonstrate that the shapes and sizes of the molten pool in the workpiece are influenced appreciably by the plasma-jet inlet parameters, workpiece moving speed and Marangoni convection. The jet shear stress manifests its effect at higher plasma-jet inlet velocities, while the natural convection effect can be ignored. The modeling results of the molten pool sizes agree reasonably with available experimental data.

Numerical Simulation of Transient Thermal Features in the Remelting Processing of Stainless Steel

应用有限元方法对层流等离子体射流不锈钢表面重熔工艺中的瞬态热物理现象进行了数值模拟研究.针对不同加热距离,确定了材料熔化和凝固过程中的瞬态温度场、温度梯度和凝固率的时间和空间分布特征.通过引入等效温度面积密度概念,研究了不锈钢重熔热处理的适合条件.结果表明,9～13mm的范围是较为适宜的加热距离,该结果与试验观察基本符合.

Preliminary Investigations on Low-Pressure Laminar Plasma Spray Processing

The usual plasma spraying methods often involve entrainment of the surrounding air into the turbulent plasma core and result in coated materials having relatively high porosity and low adhesive strength. Therefore, exploration of new plasma spraying methods for fabricating high quality coatings to meet the requirement of special applications will be quite important. In this study, an alternative plasma spraying method, i.e. the low-pressure laminar plasma spraying process, is investigated and used in an attempt for spraying thermal barrier coatings (TBCs). Investigations on the characteristics of the laminar plasma jets, feeding methods for the ceramic powder and the formation process of the individual quenched splats have been carried out. The properties of the TBCs sprayed by laminar plasma jet process, such as the adhesive strength at the interface of the ceramic coating/bond coat, the surface roughness and microstructure, are examined by tensile tests and scanning electron microscope (SEM) observations.

Investigation of Laminar Plasma Remelting/Cladding Processing

Investigation of remelting and cladding processing with laminar plasma jets on several metals has been conducted looking for possible development of a new surface modification technique. The remelting tests illustrated that the new method could evidently improve the material microstructure and properties of cast iron. The cladding was done with Al2O3 ceramic powder on stainless steel. The energy dispersive spectra (EDS) analysis was used to determine the distribution of the major cladding element in the plasma-processed layers, for which the microstructure observations and hardness measurements were also performed.