Carbo-PM: Process simulation the carbonitriding of powder metallurgical steels
M.Sc. James Damon
Motivation
The thermochemical procedure carbonitriding is applied as heat treatment method for enhancing the wear resistance and fatigue properties. Common structural components that are surface hardened are transmission gears in the automotive sector. On the other side, powder metallurgical parts are readily used for their near-net shape and advantageous cost for series production. By experimental investigations and the simulative modelling of the dominating mechanisms, advices shall be given on an optimized heat treament strategy with respect to tuning load bearability and a resulting potential lightweit design.
Goals
Development, verification und validation of a two-step simulation model:
- Carbonitriding-process-simulation in dependency of process parameters with output data for the second simulation
- Thermomechanical Finite-Element-Simulation to predict residual stress and microstructural evolution
Investigations
- Processsimulation of carbonitriding in dependency of porosity, temperature and alloying elements
- Time-Temperature-Transformation diagrams in dependency of nitrogen and carbon content
- Thermomechanical charakterization of phase specific strength values
- Finite-Element-Varianten-Calculation for numerical optimization of the residual stress profile
- Durability tests on optimized samples
