Int. J. Microstructure and Materials Properties, Vol. 11, Nos.

3/4, 2016 277

Liquid quenchant database: determination of heat

transfer coefficient during quenching

Imre Felde
Óbuda University
1034 Budapest Bécsi út 96/B,
Budapest, Hungary
Email: felde.imre@nik.uni-obuda.hu

Abstract: The estimation of thermal boundary conditions occurring during the

immersion quenching processes is an essential requirement for characterisation
of the heat transfer phenomena. In this work, six numerical techniques that are
used to calculate the heat transfer coefficient (HTC), HTC(t) functions during
immersion quenching of the ISO 9950 probe are compared. The estimation of
the HTC(t) functions has been performed by seven contributors (from three
continents) using the six different numerical techniques. First, hypothetical
HTC(t) function generated and then these function applied to calculate cooling
curves by using 1D axis symmetrical heat transfer model. The contributors
performed inverse heat conduction problem (IHCP) calculations to recover the
original HTC(t) functions using the cooling curves. The accuracy and the
relevancy of the estimation approaches applied are evaluated by using error
functions. In this paper, the activities obtained at the Step 2 of the project
‘Liquid Quenchant Database’ initiated by the International Federation for Heat
Treatment and Surface Engineering are summarised.

Keywords: quenching; HTC; heat transfer coefficient; IHCP; inverse heat

conduction problem.

Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Felde, I. (2016) ‘Liquid

quenchant database: determination of heat transfer coefficient during
quenching’, Int. J. Microstructure and Materials Properties, Vol. 11, Nos. 3/4,
pp.277–287.

Biographical notes: Imre Felde received his PhD from Miskolc University.
He works as Vice Dean at John von Neumann Faculty of Informatics Óbuda
University. He has published and co-authored more than 100 papers on various
aspects of heat treatment, quenching, laser surface processing.

This paper is a revised and expanded version of a paper entitled ‘Liquid

quenchant database – determination of heat transfer coefficient during
quenching’ presented at 5th International Conference on Distortion
Engineering, Bremen, Germany, 23–25 September, 2015.

1 Introduction

Originating from discussions held in Rio de Janeiro in July 2010 and in Glasgow 2011,
a proposal was made to the International Federation for Heat Treatment and Surface
Engineering (IFHTSE) that an International collaborative project should be launched with

Copyright © 2016 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

278 I. Felde

the objective of generating a comparative database of the cooling intensities of liquid

quenchants, for use industrially, as a selection tool in relation to specific materials,
conditions and engineering requirements (Felde, 2014). The aim of Phase 1 was to
validate the quenchant evaluation method ISO 9950 for providing reliable and repeatable
results. The investigations show that the method analysed by 22 contributors, from
14 countries, provides the desired accuracy.
For practical reasons, accurate information is needed concerning the heat transfer
phenomena occurring during the entire cooling process. The heat transfer coefficient
(HTC) and/or the heat flux (HF) functions of time or surface temperature is usually
applied to characterise, quantitatively, the heat exchange between the work piece and
quenchant. Several methods are available and applied worldwide, to estimate the HTC
and HF, including inverse and semi direct procedures (Beck et al., 1985; Tikhonov and
Arsenin, 1977; Alifanov, 1994; Özisik et al., 2000). However, the performance and
precision of the numerical techniques can vary in a wide range, even if the same input
information is used for the calculations.
Comparison of different inverse heat transfer methods to predict the HTCs function
during the cooling of an ISO 9950 probe during cooling is presented in this paper.
First, the methodology of the comparison tests is described, briefly representing the
numerical techniques as applied by the authors. Then, the evaluations of the results are
detailed and the final conclusions are presented.

2 Investigation of methods applied to estimate heat transfer coefficients

The aim of this investigation was to compare the effectiveness and accuracy of the
numerical approaches used by the authors, to determine a third type of thermal
conditions, during immersion quenching. The characterisation of the heat transfer
phenomena during the cooling an ISO 9950 standard probe (Figure 1) was obtained.
The ISO 9950 probe is a cylindrical rod (diameter is 12.5 mm) made from Inconel
600 alloy. The thermophysical parameters of the Inconel 600 are summarised in Table 1.

Figure 1 The geometry of the ISO 9950 probe and the position the thermo couple

The investigation process based on the following steps:

Step 1
Hypothetical HTCs vs. time [HTC01(t), HTC02(t), HTC03(t)] have been generated
(Figure 2). These functions were applied to calculate the cooling curves [CC01(t), CC02(t),
CC03(t)] obtained in the centreline of an ISO 9950 probe (Figure 3). Due to the geometry
of the probe, as well as, the location of the thermocouple only radial heat conduction has
been assumed (ISO 9950, 1995). The cooling curves were predicted by using 1D axis-
 Liquid quenchant database: determination of heat transfer coefficient 279

symmetrical heat transfer model implemented in ABAQUS FEA system. The

mathematical formulation of the transient heat transfer for cylindrical work piece is
defined as follows:
∂  ∂T  k ∂T ∂T
⋅ k⋅ + ⋅ + Q = ρ ⋅ Cp ⋅ , (1)
∂ r  ∂ r  r ∂ r ∂t
where r is the local coordinate, t is the time, k is the thermal conductivity, T is the
temperature, Cp is the specific heat, ρ is the density and Q is the latent heat. The initial
condition is
T ( r, t = 0 ) = T0 , (2)

where T0 is the initial temperature of the probe. The boundary condition is expressed by
∂T
−k = HTC(t ) (T ( r , t ) − Tq ) , (3)
∂r
where HTC(t) is the HTC as a function of time and Tq is the temperature of the
quenchant. The parameters of calculations are summarised in Table 2, the thermal
properties (Clark and Tye, 2003–2004) of the probe (Inconel 600 alloy) are detailed in
Table 1.

Table 1 The material parameters of ISO 9950 alloy

Temperature Heat conductivity Specific heat Density Latent heat

3
T (C) k (W/mK) Cp (kJ/kgK) ρ(kg/m ) Q (W/m3)
27 14.8 0.444 8420 0
95.45 15.8374 0.4801 8420 0
195.95 17.3606 0.5038 8420 0
205.15 17.5 0.5038 8420 0
346.75 19.7721 0.5041 8420 0
554.15 23.1 0.5453 8420 0
596.15 23.8 0.5536 8420 0
662.15 24.9 0.5958 8420 0
796.45 27.1383 0.6817 8420 0
Source: Clark and Tye (2003–2004)

Table 2 The parameters applied to generate the cooling curves [CC01(t), CC02(t), CC03(t)]
for the investigations

CC01(t) CC02(t) CC03(t)

Probe diameter, mm 12.5 12.5 12.5
Probe’s material Inconel 600 Inconel 600 Inconel 600
Location of the thermocouple Centreline Centreline Centreline
Starting temperature, T0, C 850 850 860
Temperature of the quenchant, Tq, C 40 40 0
280 I. Felde

Figure 2 The hypothetical HTC(t) functions at the location on the surface of 30 mm from the
bottom of the probe used for the modelling investigations (a 12.5 mm diameter
cylindrical probe made from Inconel 600 alloy is assumed) (see online version
for colours)

Figure 3 The cooling curves generated by using the hypothetical HTC(t) functions (Figure 1)
at the location on the surface of 30 mm from the bottom of the 12.5 mm diameter
cylindrical probe (assumed to be made from Inconel 600 alloy) (see online version
for colours)

Step 2
The cooling curves and the process parameters have been sent to the contributors.
The contributors performed the inverse calculations were:
• Swerea IVF institute, Göteborg, Sweden.
• QRC University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia.
• Miskolc University, Miskolc, Hungary.
 Liquid quenchant database: determination of heat transfer coefficient 281

• CNIITMASH Institute, Moscow, Russia.

• Faureica Ltd, Caligny, France.
• University of Sao Paulo, Brazil.
• National Institute of Technology, Karnataka, India.
The partners chose the six different approaches to reconstruct the HTC functions.
The methods applied were:
Method (1) Inverse heat transfer methodology based on linear programming (Felde
and Reti, 2010).
Method (2) The well-known method developed by James Vere Beck (Prabhu and
Ashish, 2002).
Method (3) Solution of optimisation problem: Inverse heat transfer by conjugate
gradients procedure (Alifanov, 1994).
Method (4) Regression analysis of cooling curves obtained by ISO 9950 probe
(Landek et al., 2014).
Method (5) Manual, ‘Try end error’ sequential approach where the HTC(t) function is
modified manually after each approximation step.
Method (6) Direct method to estimate the HTC (4) function at each time step by
solving the equation:
m ⋅V ⋅ C p
HTC(t ) = , (4)
F ⋅ (Tp − Т s )

where m is the mass [kg] (d = 12.5 mm, L = 60 mm, density of probe material
8420 kg/m3), V is the cooling rate [°С/s] at every time instance, Cp = 490 J/(kg⋅K) is the
mean heat-capacity of probe body material, F is the surface area of probe’s body m2, Tp is
the temperature on surface of probe, °С (it is assumed that Tp equal of thermocouple
temperature); Тs is the surrounding temperature of quenchant oil.

3 Evaluation

The estimated HTC(t) functions performed by the contributors have been analysed and
evaluated. First of all, the reconstructed HTC functions have been compared with the
original ones, HTC01(t), HTC02(t), HTC03(t)], respectively (Figures 4–6). In order to
evaluate the effect of the thermal boundary conditions to the temperature history of the
work piece the cooling curves (Figures 7–9) were calculated by using the HTC(t)
function given by the partners. The cooling curves at the centreline have been calculated
by the 1D axis-symmetrical heat transfer model detailed above. All the partners estimated
the HTCs for the cooling curves CC01(t) and CC02(t), in addition to one of the contributor
performed calculations with two different techniques. Therefore, eight reconstructed
curves represent the results obtained on Figures 4, 5, 7 and 8. The inverse calculations
282 I. Felde

focusing on the cooling curve CC03(t) have been performed by only six partners (still one
of them used two different approaches). Seven estimated HTC03(t) and CC03(t) are shown
the output of the inverse calculations on Figures 6 and 9 show 8.

Figure 4 The original [HTC01(t)] and the estimated heat transfer coefficient functions as a
function time at the location on the surface of 30 mm from the bottom of the 12.5 mm
diameter cylindrical probe (assumed to be made from Inconel 600 alloy) (see online
version for colours)

Figure 5 The original [HTC02(t)] and the estimated heat transfer coefficient functions as a
function time at the location on the surface of 30 mm from the bottom of the 12.5 mm
diameter cylindrical probe (assumed to be made from Inconel 600 alloy) (see online
version for colours)

We were focusing on the comparative study on the performance of the numerical

approaches during this investigation; therefore, we are referring only the methods applied
instead of the contributors in the followings.
 Liquid quenchant database: determination of heat transfer coefficient 283

Figure 6 The original [HTC03(t)] and the estimated heat transfer coefficient functions as a
function time at the location on the surface of 30 mm from the bottom of the 12.5 mm
diameter cylindrical probe (assumed to be made from Inconel 600 alloy) (see online
version for colours)

Figure 7 The original (CC01) and the estimated cooling curves at the location on the surface of
30 mm from the bottom of the 12.5 mm diameter cylindrical probe (assumed to be
made from Inconel 600 alloy) (see online version for colours)

As quantitative criteria designated to compare methods investigated, two different

quantities: the total average deviation and the total relative deviation have been defined
denoted by EFa and EFr were calculated as
t = 60

∑ [T (t ) − T (t ) ]
2
EFa = c m (5)
t =0

and
284 I. Felde

2
 Tc (t ) − Tm (t ) 
t = 60
EFr = ∑ 
t =0  Tm (t )
 , (6)


respectively, where Tc(t) represents the cooling curve obtained by calculations using the
HTC(t) functions provided by each contributors. The cooling curves generated by the
original HTC functions noted by Tm(t). Quantities EFa and EFr are designated to measure
the deviation between the original and the reconstructed functions. Total average
deviation and the total relative deviations calculated by equations (5) and (6) are given
in Table 3.

Figure 8 The original (CC02) and the estimated cooling curves at the location on the surface of
30 mm from the bottom of the 12.5 mm diameter cylindrical probe (assumed to be
made from Inconel 600 alloy) (see online version for colours)

Figure 9 The original (CC03) and the estimated cooling curves at the location on the surface of
30 mm from the bottom of the 12.5 mm diameter cylindrical probe (assumed to be
made from Inconel 600 alloy) (see online version for colours)
 Liquid quenchant database: determination of heat transfer coefficient 285

Table 3 Calculated total average deviation and the total relative deviations

Estimated Estimation Estimated Estimation

sample method EFa EFr sample method EFa EFr
HTC01(t) CC01(t)
1 1 489.7 6.72 1 1 9442.0 18.69
2 3 503.3 7.09 2 3 9755.3 20.14
3 1 528.2 8.02 3 1 9409.2 18.52
4 4 921.2 8.42 4 4 12,887.3 26.92
5 6 1205.2 9.57 5 6 14,620.7 28.15
6 5 782.3 8.13 6 5 9680.3 19.81
7 1 512.5 7.44 7 1 10,008.1 21.14
8 2 481.0 6.05 8 2 9212.1 17.45
HTC02(t) CC02(t)
1 1 886.4 8.82 1 1 9152.8 17.11
2 3 856.4 8.76 2 3 8599.6 13.25
3 1 840.0 8.72 3 1 8071.6 8.167
4 4 968.3 9.00 4 4 11,955.0 25.80
5 6 883.0 8.82 5 6 8607.2 13.31
6 5 1087.4 9.21 6 5 12,828.9 26.87
7 1 995.9 9.05 7 1 10,659.9 23.21
8 2 871.4 8.79 8 2 8465.8 12.11
HTC03(t) CC03(t)
1 1 604.8 8.02 1 1 9391.7 18.43
2 3 865.2 8.78 2 3 9502.5 18.99
3 1 822.1 8.67 3 1 10,993.2 24.03
4 4 1240.3 9.44 4 4 17,052.2 28.92
5 6 955.9 8.97 5 6 16,869.2 28.88
6 5 1488.1 9.70 6 5 16,404.1 28.78
7 1 652.8 8.18 7 1 9744.6 20.09

The original HTC01(t) and the predicted HTC functions are shown in Figure 4. The
HTC(t) functions generated by applying Method 1, 2 and 3 show satisfactory agreement
with the original HTC01(t) curve. The same trend can be seen in Figure 7, highlighting the
cooling curves calculated using the reconstructed HTC(t) functions. It is notable that even
the maximum of the HTC(t) function estimated by Method 5 is significantly higher than
the original function, the difference between the related cooling curves are relatively
small. The Method 4 and 6 provide poor estimation of the boundary condition’s function.
The smallest values of the calculated total average and the total relative deviation were
given for Method 2 and 1. It might be noted that the ‘manual’ approach (Method 5) also
provides satisfactory results.
The HTC(t) signals approximated based on the CC02(t) cooling curve show a strong
deviation from the HTC02(t) function (Figure 5). The reason of this inaccuracy could be
derived to the sharp slopes of the rectangle shape (original) function. The estimated
cooling curves show similar trends (Figure 8). However, it should be noted that Method
286 I. Felde

1, 2, 3 and 5 gave a relatively good fit of the original and generated curves. The poorest
results are given by the Method 4 and 6. The lowest value of EFa and EFr belonged to
Method 1 and 3, while the largest quantities were assigned to Method 4 and 6.
The function HTC03(t) is representing the heat transfer regime could occur during
interrupted immersion cooling (Figure 6). The heat has been absorbed intensively by the
quenchant during the first part of the process (0–5 s) and the limited heat transfer has
been obtained during the interruption (between 5 s and 8 s). The second intensive period
lasts between 8 s and 14 s followed by the decreasing section. The trend of the HTC03(t)
curve can be retraced with the Method 1 and 3 while the other manners did not give
acceptable results as it can be seen in Figure 8. The estimated cooling curves estimated
by using Method 1 and 3 show only satisfactory agreement with original [CC03(t)]
temperature signal (Figure 9). This observation might be confirmed by the values of total
and average deviation quantities, the lowest numbers were given to Method 1 and 3.
It should be noted that calculation techniques investigated in this paper could not
supply the unique solution of the inverse heat conduction problem. The HTCs predicted
by using them is representing one of the possible solution (Tikhonov and Arsenin, 1977;
Özisik and Orlande, 2000). The accuracy and relevancy of the estimated results are
strongly influenced by the parameters (i.e., the time instances) applied for the calculation
process. The partners used Method 1 could attain the HTC(t) function with acceptable,
but different level of accuracy. The reason of the scatter of the functions EFa and EFr is
that the partners used different time instances to determine the HTC(t) functions. If the
contributors using Method 1 would be told to use a given temporal grid for the estimation
than probably no significant deviation could be given between the HTC(t) functions.
Considering the results of the comparative study, it can be concluded that Method 1
and 3 (from the set of approached tested) could provide the most accurate estimation of
the HTC obtained during the immersion quenching of ISO 9950 probe.

4 Conclusions

Comparison report on the effectiveness and accuracy of the numerical approaches used to
estimate the HTC functions, during immersion quenching of the ISO 9950 probe,
has been outlined. The report has been performed on the predicted HTCs given by seven
contributors (from three continents) using six different numerical techniques. The authors
have reconstructed the thermal boundary conditions [HTC(t) functions] on the basis three
cooling curves, which has been generated formerly, by using hypothetical HTC(t)
functions. Quantitative criteria (total average deviation and the total relative deviation)
have been applied to evaluate the performance of the methods used by the contributors.
The investigation has shown that some of the techniques (Method 1 and 3) analysed
could be applied reliably to predict the thermal boundary conditions. Some other methods
(Method 2 and 5) have identified that acceptable prediction could be provided if there are
no dramatic changes in the heat transfer that occurs during the quenching process. The
poorest estimation for all experiments were from the original HTC(t) functions as carried
out by using Methods 4 and 6.
The final conclusion of this paper is that the quality of the calculation of HTC
functions strongly depends on the computational approach that is applied. The selection
of the proper function is essential to achieve the desired accuracy of the predictive
process.
 Liquid quenchant database: determination of heat transfer coefficient 287

Acknowledgements

The initiation of the Liquid Quenchant Database project under the leadership the IFHTSE
is acknowledged to Professor Bozidar Liscic. The contributors would like to thank the
support to Timo Wolfrath in Fuchs Schmierstoffe Gmbh and to Thorsten Beitz in Petrofer
Chemie H.R. Fischer GmbH + Co. KG. The author would like to thank the contribution
and enthusiastic support of the project by performing testing and computation to Magnus
Lövgren, Professor Narayan Prabhu, David Even, Professor Lauralice Canale, Gábor
Kerekes, Professor Mária Baán Kocsiné, Professor Thomas Filetin, Professor Darko
Landek, Scott McKenzie, Kim IS and Paul Kozlov.

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