DETERMINATION OF THE PHYSICAL PROPERTIES OF HEAT TREATABLE STEELS

Tomislav Filetin, Irena mak, Damir Markui, Davor Novak University of Zagreb - Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Naval Architecture I. Luia 5, HR-10000 Zagreb, Croatia E-mail: tfiletin@fsb.hr ABSTRACT: The following data: heat conductivity, specific heat, the coefficients of linear thermal expansion, the densities and other physical properties of steels versus temperature, are needed for calculation and simulation of heating and cooling processes of different heat treatment technologies. There is a restricted amount of data found in literature for steel grades in question - for the defined chemical composition of steel and temperature. In determining relevant data for the considered steels the statistical methods and/or methods of artificial intelligence for property prediction are applicable. An issue in this approach was the development of a method for predicting heat conductivity for the known chemical composition of steel at defined temperature. This paper presents the results of predicting heat conductivity depending on temperatures of different steels, using the regression analysis and by means of neural network. The regression equations for estimation of heat conductivities at different temperatures are defined. The model for statistical analysis is determined by genetic algorithm. Acceptable correlation between the input variables is estimated - the sum of element content of steel and temperature and the heat conductivities. The static multi layer feedforward neural network is proposed to predict the heat conductivity of steels. To accelerate the convergence of the proposed static error-back propagation learning algorithm, the momentum method is applied. In the learning datasets, 41 different constructional, corrosion resistant and tool steels are used. The inputs for learning and testing were the chemical composition and the measured data from literature for heat conductivities at different temperatures (between 20 and 700 C). The mean absolute value of error between the measured and the predicted data, and standard deviation for testing steel types are found to be acceptable. The results indicate the need for further testing of a wider dataset of steel groups and of other physical properties. KEY WORDS: thermal diffusivity, heat conductivity, heat treatable steels, prediction of properties, neural network

INTRODUCTION The data for physical properties of materials are needed for different calculations - mass and heat transfer, electrical properties, thermal distortion of parts etc. For the analysis, modelling and simulations of structural elements, tools, heat treatment and manufacturing processes, it is necessary to have at disposal the temperature dependence values of these properties for the type of material in question.

For the modelling and simulation of heating and cooling processes in heat treatment the most important properties are: thermal diffusivity - heat conductivity, specific heat at constant pressure, density, and coefficient of thermal expansion. A restricted amount of data can be found in literature, for the whole heat treatable steel grades - for a defined steel chemical composition and temperature. For the analysis in this investigation, the measured data for physical properties of different steel chemical composition are used from literature /1, 2, 3/. In the determination of relevant data for the steels in question the statistical methods and/or the methods of artificial intelligence for predicting of properties are applicable. This paper presents the results of predicting the heat conductivity depending on temperatures for different steels, using the regression analysis and neural network. THERMAL DIFFUSIVITY (a) OF STEELS Thermal diffusivity (a) is an essential variable which characterises velocity of temperature change at heat transfer. According to this, this property is a measure for the heat inertia. In the known relation for thermal diffusivity (1) it is directly proportional to heat conductivity () and inversely proportional to specific heat (cp) and density () of material. a = / (cp), m2/s (1)

In the calculation of heating and cooling dynamics of a heat-treated workpiece, the temperature dependence of a is needed. Density of metallic materials is a function of contents of the elements in chemical composition. The elements with higher density (W, Ni, Mo, Cu, Co and Zr) increase the density of steels, and vice versa: the lighter elements (C, Si, Cr, Mn, P, S and Al) decrease the steel density. The values of steel densities change slightly (about 13 %) for the temperature ranging from 20 to 1100 C /3/. From the literature /3/ the density of steels could be estimated according to the linear law: a) for unalloyed and low alloyed steels: x = 20 - 0,36Tx, kg/m3 b) for austenitic Cr-Ni steels and approximately for other high alloyed steels: (2)

x = 20 - 0,45Tx, kg/m3

(3)

where: Tx - defined temperature, C; x - density at Tx, kg/m3; 20 - density at 20 C, kg/m3. The values for specific heat of unalloyed and low alloyed steels do not depend very strongly on variations in chemical composition (Fig. 1) and they increase with temperature increasing faster than these values for austenitic steels. The temperature dependence of specific heat for low alloyed steels seems to be the same as dependence for high-speed steels or for grey iron, but with higher values. In case of quenching of all the steels in question, the values for austenitic structure (steels) are relevant to the Ms temperature. As an example, Figure 2 illustrates the differences in values of thermal diffusivities between three steel grades (namely, hot-work tool steel, high-speed steel, and austenitic corrosion-resistant steel) in the temperature range from 20 to 700 C.

Fig. 1. The mean specific heat vs. temperature of steels and grey iron /3/ Derived from the temperature dependence of , cp and of different steels /3/, thermal diffusivity has qualitatively similar curves to the ones for heat conductivity. It could be concluded that the strongest influence on heat transfer dynamics has the value of heat conductivity at a defined temperature. Because of this, the heat conductivity of different steel grades will be analysed in detail.
12 thermal diffusivity, a ,m2/s 10 8 6 4 2 0 0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 temperature, C
HS 18-0-1 X 8 CrNi 19-8 48 CrMoV 6-7

Figure 2. Comparison of thermal diffusivity of three steel grades vs. temperature HEAT CONDUCTIVITY OF STEELS () The type and crystal structure, its homogeneity (interstitial and substitutional atoms), as well as free electrons determine largely the heat conductivity of metals. With the increase in temperature, higher 3

oscillation of atoms occurs, which brings about the change in heat transport. Therefore, the greatest influence on the values of this property is exerted by the alloyed elements and temperature. As it is known, for unalloyed and low-alloyed steels, the heat conductivity generally decreases with the increase in temperature range up to 800C. High-alloyed steels show at lower temperatures lower heat conductivity values than the low-alloyed steels, which also increase with the increase in temperature. Above the - transformation temperature (about 800 C), the chemical composition of steels does not affect the heat conductivity values anymore. An issue in this approach was the prediction of heat conductivity for the known steel chemical composition and defined temperature, using the regression analysis and neural network. a) Statistical regression analysis of heat conductivity data for steels For the statistical regression analysis the data from literature /2, 3/ for 41 different steel grades are used (see Table 1): The optimal model for statistical analysis is determined by genetic algorithm and genetic programming:

= a + bT + cln(L)
where: a, b, c - regression coefficients; T - temperature in C; L - sum of element content (C, Si, Mn, Al, Co, Cr, Ni, Mo, V, W, Ti, Ta, Nb). Table 1: The analysed steel grades /2,3/
Group structural steels Type pure iron unalloyed steel 24 CrMoV 5-5 21 CrMoV 5-11 X 2 NiCoMo 18-8-5 56 NiCrMoV 7 48 CrMoV 6-7 45 CrVMoW 5-8 X 32 CrMoV 3-3 X 30 WCr 4-1 X 37 CrMoV 5-1 X 50 NiCrWV 13-13 HS 6-5-2 HS 12-1-4-5 HS 18-1-2-5 X 8 Cr 17 X 12 CrMoS 17 X 7 CrNiMoAl 15-7 X 7 CrNiAl 17-7 X 12 CrNi 18-8 X 8 CrMnNi 18-9 X 2 CrNiMo 18-10 X 5 CrNiMoTi 25-25 L, % 0,045 0,880 2,890 3,860 32,460 4,940 3,770 4,600 7,150 6,530 8,980 32,070 18,590 27,180 31,280 17,690 18,880 26,820 26,170 28,520 32,600 33,570 54,770 Group Type X 10 CrAl 7 X 10 CrAl 13 X 10 CrAl 18 X 10 CrAl 24 X 20 CrNiSi 25-4 X12 CrNiTi 18-9 X 12 CrNiSi 20-12 X 15 CrNiSi 25-20 X12 NiCrSi 36-16 X 8 CrNiNb 16-13 X 8 CrNiMoNb 16-16 X 8 CrNiMoBNb 16-16 X 6 CrNiWNb 16-16 X 5 NiCrTi 26-15 X 40 CrNiCoNb 17-13 X 40 CoCrNi 20-20 X 12 CrCoNi 21-20

(4)

oxidation resistant stainless steels

hot work tool steels

high speed steels

heat resistant stainless steels Co-steels

L, % 8,630 15,330 20,780 27,950 31,680 30,770 35,660 47,870 55,300 31,820 36,730 38,060 38,880 46,440 49,680 73,010 65,380

corrosionresistant stainless steels

Based on model (4) the regression equations for estimating heat conductivities at different temperatures are defined (Table 2). The acceptable correlation coefficients between the input variables - sum of element content of steel and temperature and the heat conductivities are obtained. The correlation coefficients for the equations for the lower temperatures are higher than for the higher temperatures. Thus, besides chemical composition, the influence on the heat conductivity at higher temperatures is exerted by other variables as well, which are not included in the regression model. Table 2: The regression function for heat conductivities at different temperatures
T, C 20 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 all T Regression equation Eq. Nr. (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) (10) (11) (12) (13) Coefficient of correlation, R 0,982 0,981 0,965 0,951 0,928 0,900 0,862 0,786 0,8899 Variance, % 96,39 96,30 93,20 90,43 86,17 81,04 74,31 61,85 79,198

= -9,5489ln(L) + 49,255 = -8,6825ln(L) + 47,824 = -7,6512ln(L) + 46,037 = -6,4341ln(L) + 43,055 = -5,2045ln(L) + 39,764 = -4,2121ln(L) + 37,239 = -3,39ln(L) + 35,32 = -2,7064ln(L) + 33,836 = 39,6712 + 0,005306T - 5,9788ln(L)

The equation (13) that includes both variables - temperature and sum of element content, has a satisfactory correlation coefficient, but for a constant sum of element content (defined steel grade) the dependence is always linear. On the other hand, for the lower sum of element content (higher heat conductivities are observed), the differences between measured and calculated values are too large. This linear law does not correspond to the temperature dependence for most steels. Therefore it represents a simplified general law with large deviations for particular steel types. b) Predicting heat conductivity using neural network (NN) In this investigation the static multi layer feed forward error back propagation NN is applied. Figure 3 graphically presents the comparison of predicted data by regression equations (5) and (8), (see Table 2), and by means of neural network for 20 and 300C, when a sum of element content is an input variable. In case when the sum of element content and temperature are known, the data predicted by means of neural network fit better to measured data than the one obtained by the calculation with regression equation. In the next approach the input variables are the normalised values of weight contents for 12 chemical elements (C, Si, Mn, Al, Co, Cr, Ni, Mo, V, W, Ti, Ta/Nb) for each steel, and the sum of these elements. The output data are values of heat conductivities at temperatures of 20, 100, 200, 300, 400, 500, 600 and 700 C. In the learning process two datasets from literature /3/ are used separately: 41 steel grades (Table 2) with very heterogeneous chemical composition, and a group of corrosion resistant stainless steels (9 steel grades). As it was expected, the mean absolute values of errors and their standard deviation for heat conductivity, are greater for a wider range of chemical composition, than by testing with a defined steel group, in this case: corrosion-resistant steels (Table 3 and 4). These data are the result of testing the neural network with learning data on learning dataset. 5

Table 3: Mean errors and standard deviation of absolute values of errors for heat conductivity, as a result of testing with learning data on learning dataset - for 41 steel grades with rather different chemical composition
abs. values of errors for all steel grades at different temperatures [C] 20 min. max. average st.dev. 0,03 1,63 0,55 100 0,02 1,35 0,43 200 0,01 1,57 0,49 0,424 300 0,01 1,70 0,44 0,426 400 0,01 1,78 0,52 0,400 500 0,06 2,15 0,62 0,465 600 0,00 2,68 0,71 0,598 700 0,02 3,13 0,97 0,753 for all temperatures min. max. average st.dev. 0,00 3,13 0,59 0,508

0,360 0,296

Table 4: Mean errors and standard deviation of absolute values of errors for heat conductivity, as a result of testing with learning data on learning dataset - for 9 corrosion resistant steel grades
abs. values of errors for corrosion resistant steels at different temp. [C] 20 min. max. average st.dev. 0,00 0,04 0,01 0,014 100 0,00 0,04 0,02 0,016 200 0,01 0,10 0,03 0,034 300 0,00 0,02 0,01 0,009 400 0,00 0,07 0,02 0,025 500 0,00 0,03 0,02 0,009 600 0,00 0,12 0,04 0,043 700 0,00 0,08 0,032 for all temperatures min. max. st.dev. 0,00 0,12 0,02 0,027

0,04 average

Figure 4 illustrates the differences between the measured values of heat conductivities, calculated based on the regression equations and predicted by means of NN for two steel grades: 1 chemical composition being very different than in the learning NN dataset; 2 austenitic corrosion resistant steel with similar chemical composition to the ones in the learning datasets. Generally, it could be concluded that the accuracy of prediction using NN is better than using regression equation, particularly when the steel shows a similar combination of chemical elements to some steel within the learning dataset.
STAT measured values NN
STAT measured values NN

heat conductivity, W/(m*K)

60 40 20 0 0 20 40 sum of elements, % 60 80

heat conductivity, W/(m*K)

80

at 20 C

80 60 40 20 0 0 20 40 sum of elements, %

at 300 C

60

80

Fig. 3. Comparison between the calculated values of heat conductivity with regression equation, predicted values by means of neural network and measured data vs. sum of elements for 20 and 300 C 6

50 heat conductivity, W/(m*K) 40 30 20 10 0 0 100 200 300 400 500 temperature, C 600 700

measured values, 1 NN, 1 STAT, 1, according to equations (5)-(12) STAT, 1, according to equation (13) measured values, 2 NN, 2 STAT, 2, according to equations (5)-(12) STAT, 2, according to equation (13)

1 data from /1/: 0,325% C; 0,16% Si; 0,55% Mn; 0,17% Cr; 3,47% Ni; 0,04% Mo; 0,01% V; 0,006% Al 2 data from /1/: 0,08% C; 0,68%Si; 0,37%Mn; 19,11%Cr; 8,14%Ni; 0,6%W; 0,004%Al

Figure 4. Comparison between measured and predicted values of heat conductivities of two steel grades CONCLUSIONS Thermal diffusivity values depending on temperature differ essentially for particular steels, which determines the different heating dynamics. The greatest influence on the temperature dependence of thermal diffusivity exerts the change in heat conductivity. - Regression dependency of heat conductivity on the sum of element content for certain temperatures shows large correlation coefficients. Estimation of heat conductivity for any given temperature, knowing the sum of element content, based on the regression equation, shows linear correlation with relatively high deviations from the measured values. - Prediction of heat conductivity using the NN presents smaller deviations than the ones obtained using the regression equation. The best results with NN are accomplished if a learning dataset has similar combinations of elements in its chemical composition as the steels to be tested. - Learning with narrowed steels set containing similar chemical compositions, results in greater prediction precision and accuracy than the learning with steels of very differing chemical compositions. To achieve better accuracy in prediction with NN, the additional investigations are required. REFERENCES /1/ Physical Constants of same commercial Steels at elevated Temperatures, The British Iron and Steel Research Association, Butterworths Scientific Publ., London, 1953. /2/ K. Bugardt, W. Spyra: Wrmeleitfhigkeit unlegierter und legierter Sthle und Legierungen bei Temperaturen zwischen 20 und 700 C, Archiv fr das Eisenhttenwesen - 36. Jahrgang, Hf. 4, 1965, p. 1-11. /3/ F. Richter: Die wichtigsten physikalischen Eigenschaften von Eisenwerkstoffen, Verlag Stahleisen M.B.H., Dsseldorf, 1973. /4/ B. Novakovi, D. Majeti, M. iroki: Umjetne neuronske mree, Sveuilite u Zagrebu, Fakultet strojarstva i brodogradnje, Zagreb, 1998. 7 -