Carburization Process Modeling and Sensitivity Analysis using Numerical Simulation

摘要

Industry often faces problems in maintaining uniform case depth during the gas carburization heat treatment processes. Two important control parameters that control the carburization of steel: environmental reaction rate that causes carbon to be absorbed at the surface and the carbon diffusion rate from the steel surface to the interior of the part. In this study a computer model is developed to investigate the effect of temperature and gas composition on the mass transfer coefficients at the steel surface and the effect of carbon content and temperature on the carbon diffusion rate in low and medium carbon steels. A series of computer experiments are performed to investigate the sensitivity of the carburizing performance characteristics to the variation in these control parameters and to determine the potential route to reduce case depth variability and the cycle time.