Research for Utility of Combination Calculation Method between Heat Treatment Simulation and Computer Fluid Dynamics

For vehicle drivetrain system parts such as gears, case hardening heat treatment with carburizing is well used to improve wear and rolling contact fatigue properties. However, distortion would occur during heat treatment processes, which may be a problem in improving the precision of the gear shape. Predicting distortion behavior accurately by heat treatment simulation method could help us achieve a good heat treatment quality and parts' shape accuracy. In this article, heat treatment simulation that is the predicting method from cooling situation to heat treatment distortion and computer fluid dynamics that is the predicting method from flow condition to cooling phenomena are combined. This combined method can estimate heat treatment quality on mass production treatment, especially in stable flow condition or some cooling conditions. However, especially for a continuously variable transmission pulley quenched in high-speed flow oil condition, the accuracy of heat treatment simulation is lower than other conditions. We estimated this to be the effect of turbulence generated in the flow.