Paper ID: 1396

Computational Modeling of a Jominy Test

Dung-An Wang
1
*
, Wei Lo
2
, Wei-Yi Chien
2
and Yhu-Jen Hwu
2
1
Graduate Institute of Precision Engineering, National Chung-Hsing University
2
Iron & Steel Research & Development Department, China Steel Corporation
Corresponding: daw@nchu.edu.tw
Abstract
A computational model of the Jominy end-quench
test is developed. Scheils additivity rule and
Johnson-Mehl-Avrami-Kolmogorov (JMAK) model are
used to model the phase transformation. The model is
implemented in a finite element code. Temperature
history, stress, and volume fraction of microstructural
phases of a S50C steel during the Jominy test are
calculated. The simulation results are verified by
experiments.
Keywords: Jominy test, Model, Phase transformation
1. Introduction
Dimensional accuracy of steel parts after
quenching is required by customers of steel companies.
Control of shape and deformation of the quenched steel
plates is not effective by manual adjustment of the
parameters of quenching processes. Through
development and usage of simulation tools for
quenching, better mechanical properties,
microstructures, and final dimensional accuracies of the
quenched steel parts can be achieved without resorting
to manual labor. Finite element analysis has been
extensively used as an effective tool to understand the
effects of the processing parameters on the properties of
the quenched steel parts[1].
Mathematical modeling of quenching process of
steel has been investigated by many researchers. In
order to simulate the quenching process, accurate
modeling of phase transformation is important. The
models implemented in finite element codes need
verification before being used in the steel industry.
The Jominy test has been extensively used to
characterize the hardenability of quenched steels. This
simple test can be utilized to obtain temperature history
and volume fraction of phase transformation during
quenching for verification of the mathematical models.
In this investigation, a finite element program for
prediction of thermal stresses and distortion in quenched
steel parts is developed. The diffusional phase
transformation model of JMAK model and diffusionless
phase transformation model of Koistinen and Marburger
(KM) model are introduced in the program. The
results of this program are compared with the Jominy
test results.
2. Mathematical Model
2.1 Phase Transformation Model
Various microstructures of steel parts during
quenching evolve differently according to cooling rates,
temperatures, sizes, and alloying elements. The
microstructural evolution has a significant effect on the
final shape and dimensions of the quenched steel parts.
Phase transformations during steel quenching can be
diffusional transformation or diffusionless
transformation[2]. The formulation of the phase
transformation presented below follows the basic
procedure reported by Kang and Im[1].
Volume fractions
i
of diffusional
transformation, including ferrite, pearlite and bainite
transformation, can be described by the JMAK
equation[1]
( )
1 exp
b
i j
at = (1)
where a and b are material parameters obtained
from the time-temperature-transformation (TTT)
diagram.
j
t is the transformation time. Fig. 1 is a
schematic of a TTT diagram. As illustrated in Fig. 1,
initial and final volume fractions of each phase are taken
as
s
(=0.01) and
f
(=0.99), respectively,
corresponding to the transformation beginning time
s

and transformation finishing time

f
, respectively. a
and b are determined by
ln(1 )
s
b
s
a

= (2)
ln ln(1 ) / ln(1 )
ln( / )
s f
s f
b


(

= (3)
The transformation time
j
t is expressed as
1/
1
ln(1 )
b
j
i
j j b
s
t t

(
= A +
(

(4)
where
j
t A is the time interval as shown in Fig. 1.
We adopt the Scheils additive rule to decide if the
phase transformation occurs. According to this rule,
phase transformation begins when the sum of the
following equation equals to unity[1]

Paper ID: 1396
1
j
j j
t

A
=

(5)
where
j
t A is the time step and
j
the transformation
beginning time at the jth time step.
When the diffusionless transformation occurs, the
volume fraction
m
of martensite transformation, is
described by the KM equation[1]
( )
{ }
1 1 exp 0.011
m i s
i
M T
| |
( =
|
\ .

(6)
where
i
are the volume fractions except the austenite
and martensite.
Heat generated due to phase transformation, latent
heat, results in temperature increase of the quenched
parts. The change in latent heat can be calculated
based on ehthalpy change. Enthalpy change of
diffusional transformation of pearlite and ferrite,
p
H A
and
f
H A , respectively, can be calculated by[3]
5 7 2
0.122 5.221 10 1.532 10
p
H T T

A = + (7)
4 7 2 10 3
0.226 7.309 10 8.043 10 2.940 10
f
H T T T

A = +
(8)
Enthalpy change of diffusionless transformation of
martensite,
m
H A , is given by[4]
640
m
H A = (9)
where
p
H A ,
f
H A and
m
H A are the enthalpy change,
J/kg, of austenite-pearlite, austenite-ferrite and
austenite-martensite transformation. Enthalpy change
of austenite-bainite transformation,
B
H A , is taken as the
same as
p
H A in this investigation.
2.2 Procedure and Formulation
The phase transformation model and a
thermo-elastic-plastic constitutive equation are
considered in the thermo-mechanical finite element
program. The procedure for prediction of the
temperature history and volume fraction of the
microstructural phases is illustrated in Fig. 2. The
Newton-Raphson method is implemented for the
elasto-plastic analysis. The flowchart for obtaining the
stress and displacement solutions due to the changes in
temperature and phase transformation is shown in Fig.
3.
3. The Jominy Test
3.1 Experiments
A schematic of the Jominy test considered in this
investigation is shown in Fig. 4. Dimensions of a
S50C cylindrical specimen are indicated in the figure.
The specimen is heated to austenitizing temperature,
then placed on a holding fixture. The lower end of the
specimen is quenched by a standard water jet of 28
o
C.
Three thermocouples are inserted in the specimen and
their locations are shown in Fig. 4. Temperature
histories of the thermocouples are recorded.
Micrographs of the cross section at the same locations
as the thermocouples are taken after the end-quench
testing.
3.2 Finite Element Simulations
A finite element program is developed in order to
obtain accurate temperature and stress solutions for the
Jominy test specimen,. Due to symmetry, an
axisymmetric slice of the specimen is considered. Fig.
5 shows a mesh of an axisymmetric model of the
specimen. The model has the height h (=100 mm)
and the radius r (=12.7 mm) according to the
dimensions of the specimen. The finite element model
has 530 4-node elements. An axisymmetric coordinate
system is also shown in the figure. Neumann
boundary condition is applied at the axis of symmetry of
the specimen and a heat flux 0 q = is introduced.
Fourier boundary condition with heat convection and
radiation is applied at the water spraying surface and at
the air cooled surfaces of specimen. The displacement
in the r direction of the symmetry axis, the z axis, is
constrained to represent the symmetry condition due to
the loading conditions and the geometry of the specimen.
According to the experiments, the initial temperature of
the specimen is 830
o
C, and the temperatures of the
water jet and air are 28
o
C and 30
o
C, respectively.
In this investigation, the material of the specimen
is assumed to be elasto-plastic, isotropic material.
Typical values of the Youngs modulus, Poissons ratio,
yield strength, strain hardening exponent, coefficient of
thermal expansion, density, thermal conductivity and
specific heat of various phases of steel as functions of
temperature are considered in the simulations. Table 1
lists the free convection heat transfer coefficients of
water and air as functions of temperature. The
commercial finite element program ABAQUS is
employed to perform the computations. Axisymmetric
bilinear displacement and temperature element, CAX4T,
is used. The user subroutines UMAT, UEXPAN and
UMATHT are used to define the material thermal and
elasto-plastic behaviors.
4. Results and Discussions
Fig. 6 shows three computed temperature
histories at the distance of 2 mm, 12 mm and 22 mm
from the quenched end. The computations are based
on the free convection of water at the quenched end.
The computed results show a progressive decrease in
the rate of cooling from the quenched end. Measured
temperature histories are also plotted in the figure.
The computed temperatures drop less steeply than the
measurements at the beginning of the quenching. As
the quenching time approaches 60 s, the computed
temperatures are lower than the measurements. The
computed history at the distance of 2 mm from the

Paper ID: 1396
quenched end is in good agreement with the
measurement after the quenching time passes 20 sec.
The discrepancy between the computations and the
experiments can be attributed to the different convective
heat transfer mechanisms at the quenched end,
measurement errors, and material properties used in
computations.
Fig. 7 shows the temperature history calculated
for various distance from the quenched end based on the
forced convection heat transfer coefficients, which are
multiplied by a factor of 1.3 of the free convection heat
transfer coefficients of water listed in Table 1. The
computed result at a distance of 2 mm from the
quenched end agrees better with the experiments at the
beginning of quench, but is slightly lower than the
experiments as the quenching time approaches 60 sec.
Fig. 8 shows the computed volume fractions of
the phases at various positions on the circumferential
surface of the specimen as functions of the distances
from the quenched end after 60 minutes of end
quenching. The austenite phase near the quenched end
was rapidly transformed into martensite phase due to the
water spraying at the bottom surface. Towards the top
surface of the specimen, austenite phase grows and the
martensite phase ceases to exist at the normalized
distance of 0.19. The volume fraction of the bainite
phase increases sharply at the normalized distance of
0.15, reaches its peak at the normalized distance of 0.23,
then decreases. The lower cooling rate in this
neighborhood than that near the quenched end results in
the growth of the ferrite, pearlite and bainite phase.
The experimental volume fraction of the microstructural
phases will be determined by micrographs taken from
the specimen 6.35 mm deep and parallel to the specimen
cylindrical axis and will be compared to the computed
results based on the developed finite element program.
Fig. 9 shows the computed residual stresses at
various positions on the circumferential surface of the
specimen as functions of the distances from the
quenched end after 60 minutes of end quenching. Due
to steep decrease in temperature at the bottom surface,
tensile stress was generated near the quenched end,
while compressive stress was generated at the middle
region of the specimen. Absolute values of the stresses
were decreased gradually towards the top surface of the
specimen due to smaller change in the temperature
compared to that in the region near the quenched end.
5. Conclusions
A finite element program was developed to
determine the temperature, volume fraction of
microstructural phases and stress of the Jominy test
specimens. The computed results based on the
program have a good agreement with the experimental
results of the Jominy test. The finite element program
coupled with the phase transformation model and the
elastoplastic formulation can be applied for prediction
of residual stress and distortion of quenched steel parts.
6. Acknowledgements
This work is funded by China Steel Corporation
under grant RE101019.
7. References
1. S.-H. Kang and Y.-T. Im, Three-dimensional
thermo-elastic-plastic finite element modeling of
quenching process of plain-carbon steel in couple
with phase transformation, International Journal of
Mechanical Sciences, Vol. 49, pp. 423-439, 2007.
2. C. imir and C. H. Gr, 3D FEM simulation of
steel quenching and investigation of the effect of
asymmetric geometry on residual stress
distribution, Journal of Materials Processing
Technology, Vol. 207, pp. 211-221, 2008.
3. L. S. Darken and R. W. Gury, Physical chemistry of
metals, McGraw-Hill, New York, 1953.
4. T. Ericsson, S. Sjostrom and M. Knuuttila,
Predicting residual stresses in cases. In: Diesburg
DE, editor. Case hardened steels, Metallurgical
Society of AIME, 1983.
8. Figures and Tables
Fig. 1 A schematic of a TTT diagram.

Paper ID: 1396
Fig. 2 Flowchart for prediction of the temperature and
volume fraction of each phase.
Fig. 3 Flowchart for the elasto-plastic analysis.
Fig. 4 Schematic of the Jominy test considered in this
investigation.
Fig. 5 A mesh of the axisymmetric model.

Paper ID: 1396
Fig. 6 Temperature history calculated for various
distance from the quenched end based on the free
convection heat transfer coefficients.
Fig. 7 Temperature history calculated for various
distance from the quenched end based on the forced
convection heat transfer coefficients.
Fig. 8 Volume fractions of the phases at various
positions on the circumferential surface of the specimen
as functions of the distances from the quenched end.
Fig. 9. Residual stresses at various positions on the
circumferential surface of the specimen as functions of
the distances from the quenched end.
Table 1 Free convection heat transfer coefficients.
T [
o
C] h
c
[J/m
2
s
o
C] of free
convection for water
h
c
[J/m
2
s
o
C] of free
convection for air
0 4350 5
200 8207 25
300 - 40
400 11962 50
430 13492 -
500 12500 -
560 10206 -
600 7793 75
700 2507 90
800 437 110
900 135 -
1000 - 175

1*

2
1

2

: daw@nchu.edu.tw

Scheil
Johnson-Mehl-Avrami-Kolmogorov
S50C