Finite element analysis of quenching temperature field, residual stress and distortion in A357 aluminum alloy large complicated thin-wall workpieces
(1. National Key Laboratory for Precision Hot Processing of Metals,Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, China;2. School of Materials Science and Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, China)
Abstract: The quenching processes of A357 aluminum alloy large complicated thin-wall workpieces were investigated by finite element method (FEM) simulation based on ABAQUS software. Heat transfer coefficients of different quenchants were accurately calculated by a traditional method of inverse heat transfer. The accurate heat transfer coefficients of different quenchants can ensure accuracy FEM results of temperature field of A357 alloy large complicated thin-wall workpieces during quenching. The quenchants of water, machine oil and 5%-UCON quenchant A were used. Quenching residual stress and distortion were investigated by considering the influence of quenchant and quenchant temperature. The maximum residual stress and distortion of quenched workpieces were predicted by using FEM simulation based on ABAQUS software.
Key words: A357 aluminum alloy; complicated thin-wall workpieces; finite element method (FEM) simulation; residual stress; distortion