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Bachelor thesis

Research · October 2015

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 Bachelor Thesis
Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of bachelor of
Engineering in Process Engineering

Modeling of spray quenching of solid cylinders using forward

integration method

Submitted by: Ali Sabt

Supervisor: Prof. Michael Modigell

Engineering Department
German University of technology – GUtech
Muscat- Oman

Submitted on: June 2015

Affiliated to
 Bachelor Thesis
Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of bachelor of
Engineering in Process Engineering

Modeling of spray quenching of solid cylinders using forward

integration method

Submitted by: Ali Sabt

Supervisor: Prof. Michael Modigell

Engineering Department
German University of technology – GUtech
Muscat- Oman

Submitted on: June 2015 Signature:

Affiliated to
Acknowledgements
My thanks to my dear father, my thanks to my dear mother, for their unceasing support during
my bachelor program.

I am also very grateful to my supervisor for his continuous guidance and keen supervision. I would
not be able to finish without his consultancy.

I owe a debt of gratitude to Dr. Elena Berdysheva and Prof. Dr. Florian Rupp for their help and
aid. I am greatly grateful that you assisted me during the hard times when I needed guidance
while coding in MATLAB.

My thankfulness to Mohammed Al-Jamri, to all my friends, colleagues, faculty members for their
support and encouragement.

II | P a g e
Declaration:

In accordance with the requirements of the degree of Bachelor of Engineering of German

University of Technology in Oman, I present the following thesis titled ‘Modeling of spray
quenching of solid cylinders using forward integration method’. This work was performed under
the supervision of Prof. Michael Modigell.

I hereby declare that the work submitted in this thesis is my own and based on the results found
solely by myself. Materials of work found by other researchers are clearly cited and listed in
reference list. This thesis, neither in whole nor in part, has been previously submitted for any
degree. The author confirms that the library may lend or copy this thesis upon request, for
academic purposes.

Name: Signatures

III | P a g e
Nomenclature
𝐴- area (m2)
𝑐𝑝 - specific heat capacity at constant pressure (J/Kg K)

𝑑32 - Sauter mean diameter of droplet (m)

𝑔- gravitational acceleration (m2/s)

ℎ- convection heat transfer coefficient (W/m2 K)

ℎ𝑓𝑔 - latent heat of vaporization (J/kg)

𝑘- thermal conductivity (W/m K)

𝐿- characteristic length (m)

𝑙- length (m)

𝑚- mass (kg)
𝑚̇ ′′- mass flux across surface (kg/m2 s)

𝑄′′ - volumetric flux across surface (m3/m2 s)

𝑄̅ ′′- mean volumetric flux on an equivalent flat impact area (m3/m2 s)

𝑞- heat transfer rate (W)

𝑞 ′′- heat flux (W/m2)

′′ - local (point-based) critical heat flux (W/m2)
𝑞𝑚,𝑝

𝑟- radius (m)
𝑇𝑓 - spray liquid temperature (K)

𝑇𝑠 - surface temperature (K)

∆𝑇 --> 𝑇𝑠 − 𝑇𝑓 (K)

∆𝑇𝑠𝑢𝑏--> 𝑇𝑠𝑎𝑡 − 𝑇𝑓 (K)

𝑡- time step (s)

𝑈- velocity (m/s)

𝑈𝑚 - mean droplet velocity (m/s)

𝑉- volume (m3)

𝑣- kinematic viscosity (m2/s)

IV | P a g e
Greek letters
𝛼- thermal diffusivity (m2/s)

𝛽- volumetric expansion coefficient (1/K)

𝜌 - density (kg/m3)

𝜇 - viscosity (N s/m2)
𝜎 - surface tension (N/m)

𝜏- Fourier number

Dimensionless groups

𝐵𝑖- Biot number

𝐺𝑟- Grashof number

𝑁𝑢- Nusselt number

𝑁𝑢 𝑑32 - Nusselt number based on 𝑑32 , ℎ𝑑32 /𝑘𝑓

𝑃𝑟- Prantl number

𝑅𝑎- Rayleigh number

𝑅𝑒- Reynolds number
𝑅𝑒𝑑32 - Reynolds number based on 𝑑32 , 𝜌𝑓 𝑄′′ 𝑑32 /𝜇𝑓

Subscripts

𝐶𝐻𝐹- critical heat flux

𝑒- excess
𝑓- liquid

𝑔 – vapor

𝑗- space step

𝑀𝐼𝑁- minimum heat flux (at Leidenfrost point)

𝑂𝑆𝑃- onset of single-phase liquid cooling

𝑠- surface
𝑠𝑑- solid

𝑠𝑢𝑏- subcooled

V|Page
𝑤- water
∞- at infinity in the fluid medium

VI | P a g e
Abstract
Quenching is a crucial stage in the manufacturing of steel as it determines the outcomes of the
product. A spray quench model of a cylindrical geometry was created based on the condition of
one dimensional heat transfer in the radial axis. The numerical method used to model the
conduction heat transfer within the cylinder was the forward finite difference method. The spray
model suggested by (Mudawar & Mascarenhas 2010) was simplified by eliminating the film
wetting stage, plus the temperature at the critical heat flux was taken from other research
material done by Mudawar himself (Mudawar and Valentine 1989) and was accurate. The results
at each iteration were used to plot the boiling curve and the corresponding quench curve at two
specified water volumetric fluxes. The model of the low volumetric flux failed to fulfil the energy
requirements of the system while there was enough water to cool down the system when the
volumetric flux was increased. Their boiling and the quench plots were similar. The cooling rate
of spray is much more compared to air-cooled pure convection.

VII | P a g e
Table of Contents

1. Introduction ........................................................................................................................................ 1

1.2 Objectives ................................................................................................................................ 2

1.3 Numerical method ................................................................................................................... 2

1.4 Dimensionless numbers ........................................................................................................... 3

2.Literature review .................................................................................................................................. 5

2.1 Quenching of steel ................................................................................................................... 5

2.2 The boiling curve and its stages ................................................................................................ 5

2.3 Free convection...................................................................................................................... 10

2.4 Water requirements............................................................................................................... 10

2.5 Quality of Water..................................................................................................................... 12

3.Methodology and Analysis.................................................................................................................. 14

3.2 Determining natural convection heat transfer rate in air ........................................................ 19

3.3 Modelling of spray boiling curve............................................................................................. 21

4.Discussion of results ........................................................................................................................... 25

4.2 Verification of the spray quench curve results ........................................................................ 28

5.Conclusions ........................................................................................................................................ 33

References ............................................................................................................................................ 34

Appendix ............................................................................................................................................... 36

A. Thermal properties of water at different temperatures.............................................................. 36

B. Thermal properties of air at 435 ᵒC ............................................................................................ 36

C. Thermal properties of steel alloy ASTM A322 at 100 ᵒC .............................................................. 37

VIII | P a g e
List of figures

Figure 1: Nukiyama’s apparatus for illustrating the boiling curve ............................................................ 6

Figure 2: Nukiyama’s boiling curve for saturated water at 1 atm.............................................................. 6

Figure 3: Film boiling ............................................................................................................................... 7

Figure 4: Nucleate boiling ........................................................................................................................ 8

Figure 5: Boiling curve (left) and corresponding quenching curve (right) showing the different regimes .. 8

Figure 6: Natural convection over a hot object ...................................................................................... 10

Figure 7: Cylindrical coordinates in Cartesian plane ............................................................................... 14

Figure 8: Discretization of solid cylinder, cross-sectional view................................................................ 16

Figure 9: Control volume ....................................................................................................................... 16

Figure 10: Control volume around the edge ........................................................................................... 17

Figure 11: Energy balance around the centre ......................................................................................... 18

Figure 12: Cooling rate of L/d=4 cylinder by air under the effect of natural convection only .................. 20

Figure 13: Spray boiling curve of L/d=4 cylinder ..................................................................................... 23

Figure 14: Corresponding Quench curve for the previous figure ............................................................ 24

Figure 15: Comparison between convection-radiation (red) and pure convection (blue) cooling rates ... 25

Figure 16: Spray quench curves for the surface (solid line) and the central section (dotted line) of the

cylinder ................................................................................................................................................. 28

Figure 17: Boiling curve at water volumetric flux of 0.00225 m 3/m2s ..................................................... 29

Figure 18: Corresponding quench curve for the previous figure ............................................................. 30

IX | P a g e
 1. Introduction
Heat treatment and production of metallic alloys is often followed by sudden cooling or
quenching. The method used and type of quenchant depends on the desired mechanical and the
metallurgical properties at the end of the cooling process. Water is among the most widely used
quenching fluids in industries, as it is cheap and readily available. When an alloy casting or forging
is quenched in a cold water bath (the process is called pool quenching), the part may distort or
warp due to rapid cooling. Thicker parts may suffer from severe residual stresses. By increasing
the temperature of the cooling water, the cooling rate could be reduced which assists in
distortion control and minimizing residual stresses. However the effectiveness of quenching will
be lowered and slower cooling rates may cause a significant loss in tensile properties and
hardness even when the part is aged later on.

Some of these problems could be solved by utilizing the techniques of spray quenching, in which
the water spray could produce tiny droplets of mist or pump high pressure of flowing water
depending on the design characteristics of the quenching facility. The amount of water flow is
one parameter among the local spray parameters that must be controlled in order to have a
flexibility over the cooling rate in addition to others, hence avoiding a slow or fast quench rate.
Despite the used facility, the quenching procedure should be adequate and should reach the
whole part such that all points are subjected to uniform cooling rate, in order to achieve nearly
homogeneous metallurgical properties throughout the heat-treated part. This fact alone arises
technical issues for the spraying nozzles regarding their liquid supply and whether the supply
itself could interact with the nozzle material and cause defects within.

After heat treatment, the temperature of the alloy will typically be above the Leidenfrost point,
and the surface will undergo film boiling, a regime which is characterized with a layer of steam
that separates the impinging drops from the surface and act as a thermal insulator, causing the
heat transfer to be minimal. After the Leidenfrost point, the impinging drops impede the vapor
film and partially contact with the surface, causing the heat flux of the surface to increase while
the temperature decreases, until the point of critical heat flux followed by nucleate boiling. After
that, the cooling will drop to the single phase regime.

1|Page
Spray cooling has the advantage that it raises the Leidenfrost temperature, which significantly
increases the rate of heat transfer, even in the boiling regime [1]. Also, spray quenching has been
introduced as one of the methods which makes efficient production at low costs [2]. A typical
application of spray quenching is induction hardening. For steel forged parts, the presence of
martensite at specific depths will determine its hardness, tensile stress and impact resistance.

1.2 Objectives
The objectives of the thesis is to make a one dimensional conduction model of a steel alloy
cylinder that is based on a numerical method. The cylinder shall be exposed to different boundary
conditions like free convection in air and spray quenching. The results in both cases will be
compared to each other in addition to more discussion about the influencing parameters that
would affect the magnitude of the heat flux.

1.3 Numerical method

Numerical methods are often utilized to solve mathematical models related to heat conduction
problems. There are three major numerical techniques: the finite elements, the finite differences
and the finite volume. The general idea behind all three is the discretizing of the heat equation,
which would convert the differential equation into an algebraic equation. Discretization is done
by dividing the medium into finite volume elements. Each location of the elements is represented
by a point or a node, a collection of these nodes would form a grid or a mesh. The distance
between two points or nodes in the mesh is referred as the mesh spacing. While computing the
boundary conditions, the temperature of each node is iterated using the temperature of its
neighboring nodes.

The numerical method that would be used will be based on the explicit finite difference method,
which could be used to solve time-dependent partial differential equations. This method is
capable of demonstrating a comprehensive physical understanding of the problem and could be
easily modified and integrated. Another advantage that the method used is effective when
applied to simple geometries.

The iterations and graph plotting are done using MATLAB.

2|Page
 1.4 Dimensionless numbers
In this section, selected dimensionless groups would be defined and described as they would be
used in the following sections.

Biot number is the ratio of the thermal resistance within a solid to the thermal resistance of its
boundary layer.

Equation 1

ℎ𝐿
𝐵𝑖 =
𝑘𝑠𝑑

Fourier number is dimensionless time variable, computed as the ratio of the diffusive heat
transfer rate to the amount of thermal storage.

Equation 2

𝛼𝑡
𝜏=
𝐿2

Grashof number is the ratio of buoyancy to viscos forces.

Equation 3

𝑔𝛽(𝑇𝑠 − 𝑇∞)𝐿3
𝐺𝑟 =
𝑣2

Nusselt number is the ratio of convection to pure conduction heat transfer of a fluid.

Equation 4

ℎ𝐿
𝑁𝑢 =
𝑘𝑓

Prandtl number is the ratio of the momentum diffusivity to the thermal diffusivity.

Equation 5

𝑐𝑝 𝜇 𝑣
𝑃𝑟 = =
𝑘 𝛼

Reynolds number is the ratio of the inertia forces to the viscos forces of a fluid.

3|Page
 Equation 6

𝜌𝑈𝐿 𝑈𝐿
𝑅𝑒 = =
𝜇 𝑣

Rayleigh number is the number associated with free convection. It is the product of the Prandtl
number and the Grashof number.

Equation 7

𝑔𝛽(𝑇𝑠 − 𝑇∞ )𝐿3
𝑅𝑎 = 𝐺𝑟 𝑃𝑟 =
𝑣𝛼

4|Page
 2. Literature review
2.1 Quenching of steel
As steel is quenched, the hot solution structure typically at temperatures between 845-870 ᵒC
will be cooled down into the tough martensite structure or sometimes bainite. If quenching was
not performed, for example by exposing the part to air until it reaches equilibrium, the structure
of steel will most likely take the form of ferrite or pearlite, which possess less strength compared
to martensite. Tampering of steel is done after quenching in or der to reach the optimum
combination of hardness, strength and toughness. For certain compositions there is a critical
cooling rate at which austenite is mostly transformed into martensite without pearlite or bainite.
When the hot steel dissipates its energy into quenchant, the cooling mechanism occurs in several
stages. Quenchants like oil or water generate four distinctive stages, film boiling, transition
boiling, nucleate boiling and the free convection stage. The record of the heat flux that occurs
between a hot surface and a quenchant as it undergoes the different regimes is plotted in a graph
called the boiling curve.

2.2 The boiling curve and its stages

Shiro Nukiyama was the first to recognize the different stages in pool quenching. His
experimental arrangement allowed him to control the heat flux q’’ from a nichrome wire into a
bath of saturated water. His arrangement was power controlled, which means that the
temperature of the wire is the dependent variable and the heat flux is the independent variable.
Nukiyama noticed that the formation of bubbles occurs when the difference between the hot
surface Ts and the saturated water Tsat is nearly five degrees (∆Te = Ts - Tsat ≈ 5). As power is
increased further, the heat flux jumps to very high levels. Using a platinum wire, Nukiyama was
able to reach heat fluxes above the critical heat flux. He conjectured that the graph he obtained
was a result of a power controlled heating method. He also believed that if the heating process
follows an independent control of the surface temperature (or temperature difference ∆Te ), a
missing part of the curve (the dotted line in Figure 2) would have been obtained. His hypothesis
was later on confirmed by Drew and Muller, and thereby obtaining the missing portion of the
boiling curve.

5|Page
 Figure 1: Nukiyama’s apparatus for illustrating the boiling curve

Figure 2: Nukiyama’s boiling curve for saturated water at 1 atm

As the graph demonstrates, the graph develops from the right to the left when heating and vice
versa when cooling. Steel manufactured at temperature of 850 ᵒC when soaked into a cold water
pool will first go through the regimes of film boiling followed by transition boiling, nucleate
boiling and free convection consecutively.

Film boiling stage is characterized by a vapor blanket that covers the quenched component. The
vapor envelops the part as a film and is developed when the heat transfer between the surface
of the part and the quenchant overreaches the amount of energy required to boil the liquid phase
and maintain a vapor phase. The vapor film act as a thermal insulator and the heat flux will
continue to reduce until the Leidenfrost point is reached, the point of minimum heat flux because
of no contact between the surface and the liquid as the vapor blanket completely covers the

6|Page
surface. During this point, heat transfer between the surface and the liquid will take place by
radiation and conduction through the vapor blanket. Quenching with salt solutions help in the
breaking up of the vapor phase, hence boiling almost directly starts at nucleate boiling which
significantly improves the heat transfer. Often used solutions include sodium chloride and
sodium hydroxide typically at concentrations of 10% and 3% by weight, respectively [3].

Figure 3: Film boiling

In pool quenching the heat transfer via radiation during film boiling becomes significant especially
at high temperatures, and therefore cannot be neglected. When q’’rad < q’’conv during film boiling,
the total heat flux is evaluated to be

Equation 8

′′ ′′
3 ′′
𝑞𝑡𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 = 𝑞𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑣 + 𝑞
4 𝑟𝑎𝑑

However, it is not considered in case of spray quenching [4].

Transition boiling or the unstable film boiling regime is located at the region between the film
boiling and the nucleate boiling. The boiling process at this stage oscillates between film and
nucleate boiling. Due to the instability of this stage, it is of little design and practical interests,
hence there were no considerable developments and correlations made for the heat flux for this
stage. Nevertheless, the upper and the lower bounds of this stage are reviewed by equipment
designers that would describe the minimum and the maximum heat fluxes, in order to avoid
inefficient heat transfer and burnout cases. The peak or the critical heat flux will appear at the
end of the nucleate boiling regime and the minimum heat flux would be at the Leidenfrost point.

7|Page
Nucleate boiling is the regime where boiling could be observed from bubble formation. The
vapor blanket is completely collapsed and the quenchant comes into full contact with the hot
surface, resulting in high values of the convection coefficient and high heat extraction rates, while
maintaining low excess heat. . The heat flux in this regime strongly depends on the number of
nucleation sites. In 1952, Rohsenow developed the first correlation for nucleate boiling for
smooth surfaces that contact with fluids [5], which relies on properties of the fluid and a constant
that must be determined experimentally.

Figure 4: Nucleate boiling

The single phase regime or the convection stage starts when the hot part temperature falls near
the boiling point of the quenchant. Since there is no change in phase, the heat flux in this regime
is the low compared to the others. Nevertheless, the matensitic microstructure is likely to form
within the temperature range of this regime. In some cases like pool quenching, the heat transfer
is governed by the laws of free convection.

Figure 5: Boiling curve (left) and corresponding quenching curve (right) showing the different regimes

8|Page
The table below displays spray quenching heat transfer correlations that have been developed
for cylindrical geometries [4].

Boiling regime or
Correlation
transition point
Equation 9

0.22
𝑘𝑓
𝑇𝑂𝑆𝑃 = 13.43𝑅𝑒𝑑0.167 𝑃𝑟𝑓0.123 ( ) + 𝑇𝑓
32
𝑑32
Single phase
Equation 10

𝑁𝑢 𝑑32 = 4.7𝑅𝑒𝑑0.61
32
𝑃𝑟𝑓0.32
Equation 11

5.75 2.5 0.35

Nucleate boiling 𝑞 ′′ 𝑑32 𝑐𝑝,𝑓 (𝑇𝑠 − 𝑇𝑓 ) 𝜌𝑓 𝜌𝑓 𝑄̅′′2𝑑32
= 0.00479 { } ( ) ( )
𝜇𝑓 ℎ𝑓𝑔 ℎ𝑓𝑔 𝜌𝑔 𝜎
Equation 12

′′ 0.3 −0.35
𝑞𝑚,𝑝 𝜌𝑓 𝜌𝑓 𝑄′′2 𝑑32 𝜌𝑓 𝑐𝑝,𝑓 ∆𝑇𝑠𝑢𝑏
′′
= 2.3 ( ) ( ) (1 + 0.0019 )
𝜌𝑔 ℎ𝑓𝑔 𝑄 𝜌𝑔 𝜎 𝜌𝑔 ℎ𝑓𝑔
Critical heat flux Equation 13

1⁄
0.198 5.55
𝜎
∆𝑇𝐶𝐻𝐹 = 18.3 [(𝜌𝑔 ℎ𝑓𝑔 𝑄′′ ) ( ) ] 1
𝜌𝑓 𝑄′′2𝑑32
Equation 14

′′ ′′
′′
𝑞𝐶𝐻𝐹 − 𝑞𝐶𝐻𝐹 3 2
Transition boiling 𝑞 ′′ = 𝑞𝐶𝐻𝐹 − [∆𝑇𝐶𝐻𝐹 − 3∆𝑇𝐶𝐻𝐹 ∆𝑇𝑀𝐼𝑁
(∆𝑇𝐶𝐻𝐹 − ∆𝑇𝐶𝐻𝐹)3
+ 6∆𝑇𝐶𝐻𝐹 𝑇𝑀𝐼𝑁 ∆𝑇 − 3(∆𝑇𝐶𝐻𝐹 + ∆𝑇𝑀𝐼𝑁 )∆𝑇 2 + 2∆𝑇 3 ]
Equation 15
Minimum heat
′′
𝑞𝑀𝐼𝑁 = 3.324 × 106 𝑄′′0.544 𝑈𝑚
0.324
flux
Equation 16

0.138 𝑑 −0.035
∆𝑇𝑀𝐼𝑁 = 2.049 × 102 𝑄′′0.066 𝑈𝑚 32

1
The equation is been cited from [1].

9|Page
 Equation 17

Film boiling −0.062

𝑞 ′′ = 63.25∆𝑇 1.691 𝑄′′0.264𝑑32
Table 1: Heat transfer correlations for spray quenching of cylinders

2.3 Free convection

The fluid motion in natural convection is driven by the buoyancy forces within the fluid itself.
“Buoyancy is due to the combined presence of a fluid density gradient and a body force (like
gravitational force) that is proportional to density” [5]. The presence of a temperature gradient
induces a density gradient, as the density of fluids is temperature dependent due to expansion
effects. For example, if cold air comes into contact with a hot surface, the heated air will rise
leaving space for cooler air to extract heat. The currents caused by this phenomenon are called
natural convection currents. The Grashof number is a dimensionless parameter that plays an
important role describing natural convection effects. The Rayleigh number is another
dimensionless number that is associated with free convection.

Figure 6: Natural convection over a hot object

2.4 Water requirements

There is a limited amount of published information about the quantity of the water consumed
by the steel and the iron industries especially when it comes to specific processing units [6]. None
were found for the steel industries in Oman.

The rate of water consumption is usually measured by the amount of water utilized to process
one ton of the product which is iron or steel in this case. For instance, in 1954 it was reported
that the average water consumption in the United by steel industries in the United States was in
31,842 gallons per ton of steel [7]. Many of the steel plants in the U.S. collect their water from a

10 | P a g e
natural resource, like an underground reservoir or fresh surface water rather while a few number
of plants obtain water from public supplies [6], which means that the majority of steel plants in
the U.S. are water self-supplied. Ground water is considered as a good quality water and is used
when necessary since it is limited in quantity [6]. In fact, steel industries use more than 95 percent
most of their water intake for cooling processes [6].

The amount of water depends on the desired finishing properties of steel which relies on the
cooling rate. Water of poor quality is often operated at larger amounts than usual in order to
avoid scale deposits and corrosion. This is because both of higher amounts of water will
experience less change in temperature which in return diminishes both the scaling tendency of
hard water and the corrosive effects of saline water. Moreover, the cooling water will be
circulated in the system at a high velocity enough to prevent suspended solids from depositing,
if the water contains any. The reuse of the cooling water may help in decreasing the gross amount
of the water used by steel manufacturing plants.

When water is used to cool down or quench hot steel parts, some amount of water will be lost
through evaporation that would make the remaining amount of water more concentrated with
dissolved salts and minerals. With the continuous recycle and reuse, this water may get too
concentrated to be used and therefore must be replaced or diluted before utilizing it again. The
problem of water quality deterioration is overcome by some plants by implementing a cascade
system where water is employed more efficiently. In these kind of systems, water is used first in
the appropriate places where good quality water is compulsory then as it quality degrades, it is
pumped towards applications that are less sensitive to the quality of the water used. Water reuse
is in the range from none to 44 times in steel processing plants in the United States [6]. Factors
like the initial quality, type the availability of the water supply affects the reuse frequency of the
cooling water.

Typically, water consumption is the sum of water loss and water discharge. Water loss is mainly
due to the fact that water is mainly used as a cooling fluid in steel manufacturing and processing
plants and the amount of the water loss through evaporation will be directly proportional to the
heat extracted in these plants. The extensive reuse of water has proven to lower the water

11 | P a g e
consumption by these plants since the amount of effluent will be reduced. A survey report done
to investigate the amount of water consumed by steel plants [6] showed that steel integrated
plants consumes less amount of water compared to steel processing plants. The figures show
that 1.8 percent and 18 percent of the new water intake is consumed while about 1 percent and
3.2 percent of the gross amount is used up by a typical integrated steel plant and a typical steel
processing plant respectively [6]. The difference in consumption between these two industries is
due to the amount of reused water. The difference in the percentage of the consumed new water
intake and the percentage of the gross consumed is the result due to the water loss in the cooling
processes. For example, water is more intensively used for cooling in electric furnaces, open -
hearth furnaces and rolling mills than in blast furnaces [6].

The American Iron and Steel Institute [8] recorded the average temperature gain of the cooling
water used in electric and open-hearth furnaces is about 50 ᵒF (≈ 27.78 ᵒC) and in blast furnaces
to be closely to 20 ᵒF (≈ 11.11 ᵒC), which means that less water will be lost by evaporation in blast
furnaces than in electric and open-hearth furnaces. Because of this increase, reused water is
cooled down first in cooling equipment (like cooling towers) as cold water is much more effective
than hot water in cooling. About 0.6 percent to 1 percent of the cooling water will evaporate in
the cooling equipment for each 10 ᵒF temperature increase [9]. Other water losses could occur
because of spray inaccuracy in some mechanical devices used in the cooling process.

2.5 Quality of Water

The quality of the water intake is important for the operation and the design of equipment. Steel
industries prefer to locate themselves near to a water resource with acceptable quality or at least
could be acceptable by further treatment at a reasonable amount of money. The quality of water
decides the construction materials of the equipment that needs huge amount of water. The
construction materials are selected upon their cost and ability to resist corrosion in several types
of water like saline water. Good quality water (soft, non-saline water) is needed for boilers and
quenching to prevent scaling. The points mentioned above are general statements as there are
no international standards set for the quality of water required by the s teel industry due to the
wide variations in the products, equipment and processes [6]. Nevertheless, few steel industries
still suggest the water criteria required in general for steel processing. For instance, Bethlehem’s

12 | P a g e
Sparrows Point Plant research facility had proposed water quality criteria that is suitable for the
steel industry to use [10]. The criteria was as the following: “Temperature of intake water below
75°F (≈ 24 ᵒC), chloride less than 175 ppm, pH between 6.8 and 7.0, hardness less than 50 ppm,
suspended matter less than 25 ppm, organic content as low as possible, and corrosion potential
at the lowest possible level.” [10]. These criterion has proven to be successful in many steel plants
in the United States [6]. Saline water could be used for cooling furnaces, cleaning, cooling
condensers in power plants and quenching slag [6], despite the risk of scaling that might cause a
significant reduction in the efficiency of cooling systems. Intake water with high concentration of
dissolved oxygen can cause corrosion problems in the steel plant. Treatment of the intake water
is practiced in some steel plants by adding disinfectants, anti-scale chemicals and oxidizing
agents, in order to prevent biological growth and to control scale formation and corrosion in the
cooling systems [6]. Quenching of coke and slag in the steel and iron industries do not require
the use of good quality water.

13 | P a g e
 3. Methodology and Analysis
Fourier’s law gives a general statement that describes the heat flux conduction rate. The
differential form of the law expresses that the heat flux as the negative product of the thermal
conductivity and the temperature gradient;

Equation 18

𝜕𝑇 𝜕𝑇 𝜕𝑇
𝑞 ′′ = −k∇𝑇 = −𝑘 ( + + )
𝜕𝑥 𝜕𝑦 𝜕𝑧

where ∇ is the temperature gradient ( it is in the Cartesian (x, y, z) form in this case). In the
cylindrical coordinates (r, 𝜙, z) the rate of heat transfer would be

Equation 19

𝜕𝑇 𝜕𝑇 𝜕𝑇
𝑞 ′′ = −𝑘 ( + + )
𝜕𝑟 𝜕𝑧 𝜕𝜙

Figure 7: Cylindrical coordinates in Cartesian plane

On the other hand, the heat equation which is derived from Fourier’s law provides a solution to
the temperature distribution in a medium. Excluding heat generation, the heat equation in
cylindrical coordinates is

14 | P a g e
 Equation 20

𝜕𝑇 1 𝜕 𝜕𝑇 1 𝜕 𝜕𝑇 𝜕 𝜕𝑇
𝜌𝑐𝑝 = (𝑘𝑟 ) + 2 (𝑘 ) + (𝑘 )
𝜕𝑡 𝑟 𝜕𝑟 𝜕𝑟 𝑟 𝜕∅ 𝜕∅ 𝜕𝑧 𝜕𝑧

Let us consider a one-dimensional case where a cylinder is exposed to axi-symmetrical heat

extraction (which is quite adjacent to the purpose of using spray quenching in the attempt of
achieving uniform heat distribution in the quenched part)

𝜕𝑇 1 𝜕 𝜕𝑇
𝜌𝑐𝑝 = (𝑘𝑟 )
𝜕𝑡 𝑟 𝜕𝑟 𝜕𝑟

With the assumption that 𝑘 remains constant as temperature changes

Equation 21

𝜌𝑐𝑝 𝜕𝑇 1 𝜕 𝜕𝑇 1 𝜕𝑇
= (𝑟 ) =
𝑘 𝜕𝑡 𝑟 𝜕𝑟 𝜕𝑟 𝛼 𝜕𝑡

The first step to solve the heat equation by the explicit scheme is by appropriately discretizing
the volume element. A cylinder (figure 8) of radius r is divided into concentric cylindrical shells,
with a constant increment of ∆r between two consecutive radii of the elements. Nodes are placed
at the outer boundary of each element starting from the center (at j=0) to the edge of the cylinder
(j=n). The control volumes which are considered in the explicit method are also cylindrical shells
with thickness ∆r, in which the nodes are at their center. This measure has been taken in order
to avoid the center and the surface of the cylinder because they are exposed to different
boundary conditions and therefore the general interior nodal equation is not applicable.

The numerical solution to the heat equation could be derived directly from the heat equation.
However in many cases, the finite difference equations are developed using the energy balance
method. This technique is more desirable as it enables the analysis of several phenomena in one
problem, such as heat transfer through composite materials or heat generation within the
system. The finite difference equations of the energy method are procured by applying
conservation of energy to a nodal control volume element. In addition, it is assumed that all the

15 | P a g e
heat flows into the node for consistency. In addition, the time derivatives will be replaced with
forward time step approximations.

Figure 8: Discretization of solid cylinder, cross-sectional view

Figure 9: Control volume

The energy balance around the control volume starting with time step (superscript i)

𝜕𝑇
𝑞𝑗−1 + 𝑞𝑗+1 = 𝑚𝑐𝑝
𝜕𝑡

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 𝑖
𝑇𝑗−1 − 𝑇𝑗𝑖 𝑖
𝑇𝑗+1 − 𝑇𝑗𝑖 𝑇𝑗𝑖+1 − 𝑇𝑗𝑖
𝑘𝐴𝑗−1 + 𝑘𝐴𝑗+1 = 𝜌𝑉𝑐𝑝
∆𝑟 ∆𝑟 ∆𝑡
𝑖
∆𝑟 𝑇𝑗−1 − 𝑇𝑗𝑖 ∆𝑟 𝑖
𝑇𝑗+1 − 𝑇𝑗𝑖 𝑇𝑗𝑖+1 − 𝑇𝑗𝑖
𝑘 [2𝜋 (𝑗∆𝑟 − ) 𝑙] + 𝑘 [2𝜋 (𝑗∆𝑟 + ) 𝑙] = 𝜌[2𝜋(𝑗∆𝑟 )𝑙∆𝑟 ]𝑐𝑝
2 ∆𝑟 2 ∆𝑟 ∆𝑡

The equation then simplifies to

1 𝑖 𝑖
1 𝑖 𝜌𝑐𝑝 𝑗(∆𝑟)2 𝑖+1
(𝑗 − ) 𝑇𝑗−1 − 2𝑗𝑇𝑗 + (𝑗 + ) 𝑇𝑗+1 = (𝑇𝑗 − 𝑇𝑗𝑖 )
2 2 𝑘 ∆𝑡
𝑘
With 𝛼 = the temperature at the forward time step for interior nodes is a function of the
𝜌𝑐𝑝

Fourier number and the position in space.

Equation 22

𝜏 1 𝑖 1 𝑖
𝑇𝑗𝑖+1 = 𝑇𝑗𝑖 + [(𝑗 − ) 𝑇𝑗−1 − 2𝑗𝑇𝑗𝑖 + (𝑗 + ) 𝑇𝑗+1 ]
𝑗 2 2

The heat extraction at the surface (node n) is via convection. Holding the assumption that the
temperature at the infinite remains constant, the energy balance is

Figure 10: Control volume around the edge

𝜕𝑇
𝑞𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑑 + 𝑞𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑣 = 𝑚𝑐𝑝
𝜕𝑡
𝑖
𝑇𝑛−1 − 𝑇𝑛𝑖 𝑖
𝑇𝑛𝑖+1 − 𝑇𝑛𝑖
𝑘𝐴𝑛−1 + ℎ𝐴𝑛 (𝑇∞ − 𝑇𝑛 ) = 𝜌𝑉𝑐𝑝
∆𝑟 ∆𝑡
17 | P a g e
 𝑖
∆𝑟 𝑇𝑛−1 − 𝑇𝑛𝑖 𝑖
∆𝑟 𝑇𝑛𝑖+1 − 𝑇𝑛𝑖
𝑘 [2𝜋 (𝑛∆𝑟 − ) 𝑙] + ℎ[2𝜋 (𝑛∆𝑟 )𝑙](𝑇∞ − 𝑇𝑛 ) = 𝜌 [2𝜋(𝑛∆𝑟 )𝑙 ] 𝑐𝑝
2 ∆𝑟 2 ∆𝑡

Provided that 𝑛∆𝑟 = 𝑟, the finite difference equation at convective boundary condition for a
cylinder

Equation 23

2𝜏 1 𝑖 1 ℎ𝑟 ℎ𝑟
𝑇𝑛𝑖+1 = 𝑇𝑛𝑖 + [(𝑛 − ) 𝑇𝑛−1 − (𝑛 − + ) 𝑇𝑛𝑖 + 𝑇∞ ]
𝑛 2 2 𝑘 𝑘

For infinitely long cylinder where the characteristic length is the radius, the Biot number will be
introduced to the equation

Equation 24

2𝜏 1 𝑖 1
𝑇𝑛𝑖+1 = 𝑇𝑛𝑖 + [(𝑛 − ) 𝑇𝑛−1 − (𝑛 − + 𝐵𝑖) 𝑇𝑛𝑖 + 𝐵𝑖 ∙ 𝑇∞ ]
𝑛 2 2

The temperature gradient at the center is zero. In this case it is possible to approach the center
point by considering the perpendicular plane to the axis of the cylinder hence it is accurately
fitting to formulate the finite difference equation similarly to Cartesian coordinate systems.

Figure 11: Energy balance around the centre

′′ ′′ ′′ ′′
𝜕𝑇
𝑞𝑛𝑜𝑟𝑡ℎ + 𝑞𝑠𝑜𝑢𝑡ℎ + 𝑞𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑡 + 𝑞𝑤𝑒𝑠𝑡 = 𝜌𝑐𝑝
𝜕𝑡

18 | P a g e
 𝑖
(𝑇𝑛𝑜𝑟𝑡ℎ − 𝑇0𝑖 ) 𝑖
(𝑇𝑠𝑜𝑢𝑡ℎ − 𝑇0𝑖 ) 𝑖
(𝑇𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑡 − 𝑇0𝑖 ) 𝑖
(𝑇𝑤𝑒𝑠𝑡 − 𝑇0𝑖 ) 𝑇0𝑖+1 − 𝑇0𝑖
𝑘 +𝑘 +𝑘 +𝑘 = 𝜌𝑐𝑝
(∆𝑟 )2 (∆𝑟 )2 (∆𝑟 )2 (∆𝑟 )2 ∆𝑡

Because of the condition of axi-symmetry, it is realized that

𝑖 𝑖
𝑇𝑛𝑜𝑟𝑡ℎ = 𝑇𝑠𝑜𝑢𝑡ℎ 𝑖
= 𝑇𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑡 𝑖
= 𝑇𝑤𝑒𝑠𝑡 = 𝑇1𝑖

And the formula of the center node could be rearranged again and form

Equation 25

𝑇0𝑖+1 = 𝑇0𝑖 + 4𝜏(𝑇1𝑖 − 𝑇0𝑖 )

3.2 Determining natural convection heat transfer rate in air

If the heat transfer was from the surface to the fluid (cooling process), the rate of heat transfer
rate is calculated by

Equation 26

𝑞 = ℎ𝐴(𝑇𝑠 − 𝑇∞ )

The heat transfer coefficient ℎ is defined through the Nusselt number, which depends on the
geometry and the orientation of the object and the convection type. For a vertical plate the
Nusselt number is defined as

Equation 27

2
0.387𝑅𝑎1⁄6
𝑁𝑢 = {0.825 + }
[1 + (0.492 ⁄𝑃𝑟 )9⁄16 ]4⁄9

The above correlation may also be valid for vertical cylinders of finite length, if the diameter of
the cylinder is much greater than the thickness of the boundary layer [5]. This requirement is met
when [11]

𝑑 35
≿ 1⁄4
𝐿 𝐺𝑟

The iterations used to estimate the temperature variation with time are used upon a steel alloy
ASTM A322 cylinder with length to diameter ratio of four (L=1m, d=0.25m) at an initial
temperature of 850 ᵒC. In addition to considering air as an ideal gas, the assumptions include

19 | P a g e
negligible end effects, negligible radiation and constant thermal properties throughout the hot
part and the medium. The temperature of the air at infinite is 20 ᵒC. The properties of air were
taken at atmospheric pressure at the average temperature of the part and its infinite
temperature which is 435 ᵒC (708 K), whereas the thermal properties of the cylinder were
obtained based on the saturation temperature of water at atmospheric pressure approximately
at 100 ᵒC (373 K) for a reason that will be explained in the following section. The Biot number
was less than 0.1, thus it was sufficient to treat the system to be having initial uniform
temperature. The cooling curve was plotted after selecting appropriate time and space steps, in
order to satisfy the stability criterion. Because convection was the only mean of heat transfer the
part would take more than 19 hours to cool down below 100 ᵒC with constant heat transfer
coefficient of 7.6 W/m2 K.

Figure 12: Cooling rate of L/d=4 cylinder by air under the effect of natural convection only

Because of the assumptions used in deriving the nodal equations (axi-symmetrical heat
conduction, heat transfer direction is toward the node), the stability criterion would be fulfilled

20 | P a g e
if the coefficient of the previous time step temperature of the node of interest is greater than or
equals to zero [5]. Under normal circumstances, and since the Biot number is smaller than 0.5,
equation 22 (not equation 25) would be the most sensitive to this criterion, that would lead to
the conclusion that the Fourier number must be greater than or equal to 0.5.

Recall equation 22

𝜏 1 𝑖 1 𝑖
𝑇𝑗𝑖+1 = 𝑇𝑗𝑖 + [(𝑗 − ) 𝑇𝑗−1 − 2𝑗𝑇𝑗𝑖 + (𝑗 + ) 𝑇𝑗+1 ]
𝑗 2 2

𝜏
(1 − 2𝑗) 𝑇𝑗𝑖 ≥ 0
𝑗

1
𝜏≥
2

However, since a two-dimensional approach was used for more accurate determination of the
nodal equation at the center point, the pre-mentioned stability statement seems to be
inapplicable. Nevertheless by trial and error, the upper bound Fourier number is verified to be
0.413. Fourier numbers above the stability requirement induces unstable oscillations to the
solution causing it to diverge away from the actual solution and explode exponentially. On the
other hand, if the Fourier number was very less compared to 0.5, the results would also be
inaccurate but non-oscillating, which means that it is better to either increase the time step or
produce a finer grid. The best range from which the solution was computed was in the range
{0.13 ≤ 𝜏 ≤ 0.413}.

3.3 Modelling of spray boiling curve

Despite the fact that the heat extraction by spray quenching is also through convection, the
boundary condition of the surface node (see figure 10) has been changed to a specified heat flux
that flows out of the surface node, since the correlations for the heat fluxes and the discrete
margins for each regime have already been described in table 1 based on the model of Mudawar
& Mascarenhas (2010) [4]. The heat transfer coefficient at the convection stage was determined
using the heat flux at the offset temperature of the single phase regime by simply rearranging
Fourier’s law of convection:

21 | P a g e
 𝑞 ′′ = ℎ(𝑇𝑠 − 𝑇𝑓 )

Equation 28

𝑞 ′′
ℎ=
𝑇𝑠 − 𝑇𝑓

Using water as the cooling fluid at atmospheric pressure, its thermophysical properties were
evaluated at the saturation temperature and according to the average temperature of the fluid
and the hot body only in the single phase regime. The properties of the cylinder were taken at
the saturation temperature of water at atmospheric pressure as it corresponds to the thermal
equilibrium temperature between the film surrounding the body and the surface temperature.
The water temperature is 20 ᵒC while being sprayed on the cylinder and it rises maximum up to
its saturation temperature. The cylinder (steel alloy ASTM A322) is initially at a temperature of
850 ᵒC.

Other parameters needed to model the heat flux with respect to the excess heat (the difference
between the surface temperature and the saturation temperature) is dependent on the
quenching facility or the nozzle design which are the mean (Sauter) diameter of the droplets,
droplet velocity, volumetric flux and the mean volumetric flux on an equivalent flat impact area.
Since the study is not on the nozzle design, the numerical values were taken from other research
papers Mudawar & Mascarenhas (2010) [4], I. Mudawar and W. Valentine (1989) [1]. The most
influencing parameter is the volumetric flux over the spray impact areas which are elliptical in
shape [4]. The mean volumetric flux on an equivalent flat impact area is usually 40-50% less than
the volumetric flux. The amount of the volumetric flux highly controls the magnitudes and
locations of the minimum heat flux at the Leidenfrost point and the critical heat flux at the peak
of the curve. After acquiring all the necessary data, the boiling curve and the corresponding
quench curve were plotted.

22 | P a g e
 Spray nozzle parameters
𝑸′′ (m3/m2 s) ̅ ′′ (m3/m2 s)
𝑸 Um (m/s) d32 (m) 𝑹𝒆𝒅𝟑𝟐 2

2.00 x 10-3 1.20 x 10-3 30.0 1.00 x 10-4 35.5

Discrete points in the spray boiling curve
qmin (W/m2) Tmin – Tsat (ᵒC) qCHF (W/m 2) TCHF – Tsat (ᵒC) Tosp – Tsat (ᵒC)
3.40 x 105 220 5.39x 106 136 118
Table 2: Data used to plot the spray boiling curve

Figure 13: Spray boiling curve of L/d=4 cylinder

2
Properties of the fluid taken at 1 atm at temperature 435 ᵒC (708 K), the Reynold number is used to calculate the
offset temperature of the single-phase regime.

23 | P a g e
Figure 14: Corresponding Quench curve for the previous figure

24 | P a g e
 4. Discussion of results
When considering radiation when the hot part is left exposed to the open air, the heat flux at the
beginning is much greater than with pure convection only as of the vast temperature difference
between the part and the infinite temperature of air influences the radiation effects more than
convection heat transfer. This sharpens the cooling rate gradient at the beginning before the
slope gets dominated by convection. This also results in a difference of about 35 degrees Celsius
at the final time elapsed which is not very significant. In both cases the cooling rate is slow which
would decrease the amount of martensite microstructure although the residual stress es will be
minimized within the part. To achieve more improved metallurgical properties, gas spray
quenching is utilized which that would increase the heat transfer coefficient and thus the overall
heat transfer rate which might be enough to inhibit precipitation in the microstructure while
quenching. The heat transfer coefficients of for forced convection like in this case usually ranges
from 100 W/m2 K to 300 W/m2 K [12], which is quite high in contrast with the heat coefficient
associated with free convection that was calculated to be 7.57 W/m2 K. On the contrary, when
quenching with water by pool or spray quenching, the heat transfer coefficient could easily reach
above 1000 W/m 2 K [12].

Figure 15: Comparison between convection-radiation (red) and pure convection (blue) cooling rates

25 | P a g e
As mentioned in the introduction, spray quenching delay the insulating effect formed at the
Leidenfrost point to higher surface temperatures. Since the temperature of the minimum heat
flux has been raised, the cooling process could be maintained at a higher rate and for a longer
time, almost keeping a constant and homogeneous heat transfer rate throughout the cylinder.
The cooling rate could be easily adjusted by controlling the volumetric flow of the water allowing
more flexibility and practicality compared to pool quenching. The Leidenfrost point in the model
was found at a relative surface temperature (relative to the saturation temperature) of 220 ᵒC,
whereas looking at Nukiyama’s boiling curve that stimulates pool quenching (figure 2), the
Leidenfrost point is reached at a relative temperature of about 120 ᵒC. The peak value of the heat
flux in the pool quenching curve reaches approximately to 1.2 MW/m 2. As for the modelled spray
quenching process at volumetric flux of 0.002 m 3/m2 s, mean droplet diameter 0.001 m and
droplet velocity of 30 m/s, the critical heat flux was found to be 5.39 MW/m2. The general shape
of the boiling curve in both pool quenching and spray quenching is still maintained.

The cooling was performed on a steel alloy ASTM A322 cylinder that possesses a small conduction
coefficient. Under low cooling rates, a temperature gradient is less likely to occur within the part
from its core to the boundary layer leading to the conclusion that the temperature at the center
of the cylinder is roughly the temperature at the surface. In contrary, higher cooling rates induces
a temperature gradient that increases as the thermal conductivity of the part decreases. In the
spray quenching model, within a time of 180 s the surface temperature had already reached the
temperature of the cooling fluid at 20 ᵒC unlike the core that preserved its temperature at about
560 ᵒC.

Gas quenching experiences no phase change, thus the quench curve exhibits only one trend as it
cools down slowly. On average, the cooling rate considering pure convection is 0.64 ᵒC/min 0.67
ᵒC/min considering radiation. For the first 2 x 104 s (≈5 hours 30 min), the cooling rate of pure
convection is mildly greater than the average due to the initial temperature difference. The same
reason is also causing radiation effects to be significantly greater than the convection heat
transfer making the cooling rate at that period to be 1.65 ᵒC/min. On the other hand, quenching
very hot parts with water will incur change in phase. This type of is called boiling/condensation
convection and it holds considerable values of heat transfer coefficient, that suggests that by

26 | P a g e
utilizing this quenching phenomena we could obtain high heat extraction rates. Whether by pool
quenching or spray quenching, the heat transfer rate will definitely be greater than cooling by air
through free convection.

The sharp gradient that occurs at surface temperature of 320 ᵒC because the body experiences a
sudden increase in the heat flux, which is due to the rapid transition between film boiling and
transition boiling regimes. Since the diameter of the model was small, it reacted so quickly to the
change in boiling regimes. This is because bodies with small diameters have less heat capacity
than bodies with larger diameters, so they respond very fast to heat extraction. The gradient at
this transition point will be smoother as the diameter of the body increases.

In spray quenching, increasing the volumetric flux increases the rate of heat extraction in all
regimes and it raises the value of the minimum heat flux and increases the value of the critical
heat flux. The size of droplets mostly influences the rate of nucleate boiling, the smaller the
droplet the more effective nucleate boiling becomes. Decreasing droplets’ diameter also
intensifies heat transfer rate in the film boiling regime and it will raise the temperature at which
the Leidenfrost point is reached, although the value of the minimum heat flux will not be
affected. The minimum heat flux is a function of and is proportional to the droplet velocity and
the fluid volumetric flux.

27 | P a g e
 Figure 16: Spray quench curves for the surface (solid line) and the central section (dotted line) of the cylinder

4.2 Verification of the spray quench curve results

The plot of the boiling curve was done at volumetric water flux of 0.002 m 3/ m2 s. However, the
plot does not check whether the system is balanced or not in terms of the extracted heat and the
water supply. Therefore, it is necessary to check whether the system is properly balanced in order
to verify that the water supply is sufficient and not too less. For an adequate quenching system,
the energy balance should prove that the total heat absorbing capacity of the water supply is
greater than or equal to the critical heat flux, which means that even at the highest peak of the
boiling curve there is enough water to absorb the heat. In other words, the ratio between the
critical heat flux and the heat absorbing capacity of the water flux should always be less than or
equal to one for adequate systems.

Equation 29

′′
𝑞𝐶𝐻𝐹 ≤ 𝜌𝑓 𝑄′′ [𝑐𝑝,𝑓 (𝑇𝑠𝑎𝑡 − 𝑇𝑓 ) + ℎ𝑓𝑔 ] = 𝑞𝑤
′′

Equation 30

′′
𝑞𝐶𝐻𝐹
′′
≤1
𝑞𝑤

28 | P a g e
When the energy balance was performed according to the known set of the values acquired from
thermal properties tables and the boiling curve, the ratio between the critical flux and the
maximum water heat flux was calculated as 1.09. Since the ratio is greater than one, it signals
that the cooling water supply is too less and will completely evaporate before fulfilling the
demand of the heat extraction rate. Moreover, the analysis performed at the prefixed volumetric
flux will be invalid, hence the temperature forecast will also be incorrect as it followed the path
of the invalid spray boiling curve. When the water supply was increased from 0.002 m3/m2s to
0.00225 m3/m2s, the value of the critical heat flux increased to 5.59 x 106 W/m2 and the ratio was
determined to be 0.96, which is a sign that the system have enough water to cool down the
cylinder at all points of the boiling curve.

A slight uprising above the critical heat flux happened while plotting the boiling curve at
volumetric flux 0.00225 m3/m2s. It is due to mathematical error within the spray quench model
itself and could be ignored.

Figure 17: Boiling curve at water volumetric flux of 0.00225 m3/m2s

29 | P a g e
 Figure 18: Corresponding quench curve for the previous figure

During the quenching process, some water will evaporate and the remaining will flow downward
due to the effect of gravity. Under the condition that the sprayed water is uniformly heated when
applied to the cylinder, the amounts of excess water and evaporated water is dependent on the
heat flux and could be calculated by subtracting the heat flux from the energy required to raise
the water temperature to its saturation temperature, then dividing the result by the enthalpy of
vaporization. With respect to the critical heat flux, the amount of water 𝑚̇ ′′ that will evaporate
per unit was calculated to be around 2.14 kg/m2 s (equation 31). The excess water that would
flow downward is then found by subtracting this value from the initial mass flow (equation 32),
which also corresponds to the volumetric flux of the down flow (equation 33). The down flows
from upper spraying nozzles will add up to their sequent streams causing a water film thickness
gradient over the cylinder which shows that the film thickness increases as we move from the
top to the bottom, which in fact leads to the conclusion that the heat transfer rate at the top is
more effective than in the bottom part of the cylinder because of the thick water liquid film [13],
especially at the Leidenfrost point.

30 | P a g e
 Equation 31

′′
𝑞𝐶𝐻𝐹 − 𝜌𝑓 𝑄′′ 𝑐𝑝,𝑓 ∆𝑇𝑠𝑢𝑏
𝑚̇ ′′ =
ℎ𝑓𝑔

Equation 32

𝑚𝑒′′ = 𝜌𝑓 𝑄′′ − 𝑚̇ ′′

Equation 33

𝑚̇𝑒′′
𝑄𝑒′′ =
𝜌𝑠𝑎𝑡

The excess mass down flow at the critical heat flux was calculated to be around 0.10 kg/m 2s which
is almost equivalent to 1.08 x 10 -4 m3/m2 s at the saturation temperature of water at atmospheric
pressure, which is not too much compared to the spraying feed flow. On the other hand, the ratio
between the minimum heat flux and the total heat absorbing capacity of the water supply is
0.0624, an indication that there is an exaggerated amount of excess water. The loss of water at
the Leidenfrost point is due evaporation and not boiling because of the poor heat transfer rate.
At this point water droplets are completely isolated from the surface of the cylinder by a layer of
steam that acts as thermal insulator. Heat extraction in here is will be radiation, not convection.
The change in temperature of the water could be calculated to be 38.6 ᵒC using equation 34,
assuming that all the heat radiated from the cylinder is absorbed by the water.

Equation 34

′′
𝑞𝑚𝑖𝑛
∆𝑇 =
𝜌𝑓 𝑄′′ 𝑐𝑝

The quantity of evaporated water is much less so more water wasted at the Leidenfrost point
when compared to the point at the critical heat flux. In general, the amount of excess water will
be mostly high during due to the reason that the dominant phase in this cooling process is the
film boiling regime which is characterized by low heat transfer rates and covers the widest surface
temperature range in contrast to the other regimes. This would ensure that the cylinder is always
covered with a film layer to guarantee that the heat extraction is due to the water supply mostly

31 | P a g e
via convection (also a very small amount is through direct conduction). With the cylinder being
always coated by a water film, nearly a uniform cooling rate could be achieved throughout the
surface of the cylinder while lowering the residual stresses and distortions when quenching.

Nevertheless, in case the excess water is considered as waste or effluent, the cost of the water
supply to run a spray quenching facility in the long run will be more than the cost of the water
used in pool quenching. In favor cutting down the costs, one might contemplate to use the excess
water as recycle. But it is highly important to consider its temperature before directly spraying it
back on to the cylinder. The heat fluxes at the different regimes is highly dependent on the
temperature difference between the sprayed fluid and the surface temperature of the cylinder.
The temperature of the excess water will always be greater than its initial temperature as it had
absorbed the heat coming out from the part. By directly spraying back the recycled excess water
the heat flux will considerably get lowered hence the cooling rate. Not to mention that the model
used for this simulation (Mudawar & Mascarenhas 2010) [4] will get disturbed if the spraying
water initial temperature was at its saturation temperature since one of its important points will
cease to exist which is the point at the critical heat flux which is a function of the subcooled
temperature difference (the difference between the saturation temperature of the fluid and its
own temperature). The reused water must be cooled down to its initial temperature before
recycling it into the main water reservoir or the quench facility.

The amount of the excess water could also be reduced through control systems that allow
individual pressure control over the spray nozzles. Water flow rate could be adjusted depending
on the surface temperature of the cylinder or the boiling stage and on the vertical position of the
spray nozzle. For example water flow rate should be reduced during film boiling regime and then
increased gradually after the Leidenfrost point. The pressure at the spray nozzles could be
adjusted or reduced as the position of the spray nozzle goes below in order to fulfil the cooling
requirements. However, by decreasing the flow rate of water the quenching rate will reduce since
because the heat flux is a function of volumetric flux of the cooling water, and the cooling process
will take longer time.

32 | P a g e
 5. Conclusions
The summary of the results were as follow:

o 1-D approach of the problem was good enough to achieve results close to the 2-D
approach used in other research material.
o The spray model suggested by (Mudawar & Mascarenhas 2010) [4] was simplified by
eliminating the film wetting stage, plus the temperature at the critical heat flux was
taken from other research material done by Mudawar himself (Mudawar and
Valentine 1989). Yet a good solution of the boiling curve and corresponding quench
curve was achieved.
o The core in metallic alloys like steel with low conduction coefficients will still conserve
the heat and not cool down quickly even if the surface is at the temperature of the
cooling fluid.
o The volumetric flux of water and droplet diameter are the parameters that most
influence the value at the critical heat flux.
o It is crucial to verify such quench models that highly depends on the temperature
difference between the surface of the body and the fluid because they do not regard
for energy balances in the system. If the ratio between the critical heat flux and the
maximum heat absorbing capacity of the cooling water was less than or equal one, it
means that enough water is supplied to cool down the cylinder. Else, there is too less
water and more water must be added.
o A cylindrical model that is air-cooled through pure convection regardless of radiation
effects have approximately the same average cooling rate if radiation was considered.

33 | P a g e
References

[1] I. Mudawar and W. Valentine, "Determination of the Local Quench Curve for Spray-Cooled Metallic
Surfaces," J. Heat Treating, vol. 7, no. 2, pp. 107-121, 1989.

[2] M. Soltani, A. Pola and G. M. La Vecchia, "Computational model for spray qunching of forging,"
DIMI, University of Brescia, Brescia, 2014.

[3] Houghton, "Houghton on quenching," [Online]. Available:

http://testweb.houghtonglobal.com/downloads/Houghton_on_Quenching_Website_brochure.zip.

[4] I. Mudawar and N. Mascarenhas, "Analytical and computational methodology for modeling spary
quenching of solid alloy cylinders," International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, pp. 5871-
5883, 2010.

[5] F. P. Incropera, P. D. David, T. L. Bergman and A. S. Lavine, Introduction to heat transfer, 5th ed.,
Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, 2007.

[6] F. B. Walling and L. E. OTTS, "Water Requirements of the Iron and Steel Industry," United States
Government Printing Office, Washington, 1967.

[7] U.S. Congress and S. S. C. o. N. W. Resources, "Water resources activities in the United States
Future water requirements," 86th United States Congress, Washington D.C., 1960.

[8] American Iron and Steel Institute, "Water is used principally for cooling: Steel Facts," 1948.

[9] G. E. Harbeck, G. E. Koberg and G. H. Hughes, "The Effect of the Addition of Heat from a
Powerplant on the Thermal Structure and Evaporation of Lake Colorado City, Texas," Geological
Survey Professional Paper 272-B, Washington, 1959.

[10] A. Wolman, "Industrial water supply from processed sewage treatment, Md.," Sewage Works
Journal, vol. 20, no. 1, pp. 15-21, 1948.

[11] E. M. Sparrow and J. L. Gregg, "Laminar free convection from a vertical plate with uniform surface
heat flux," Trans. ASME, pp. 435-440, 1956.

[12] M. Reich, S. Schöne, O. Keßler, M. Nowak, F. Nürnberger and M. Schaper, "Simulation of gas and
spray quenching," Key Engineering Materials, vol. 424, pp. 57-64, 2010.

[13] T. Ishigami, T. Kameda and H. Suzuki, "Effect of the flow rate of water dropping onto the
evaporator in an absorbing chiller," Memoirs of the Graduate School of Engineering Kobe
University, vol. 1, pp. 42-47, 2009.

[14] J. Day, "Laminar natural convection from isothermal vertical cylinders," Texas, 2012.

34 | P a g e
[15] I. Mudawar and T. Deiters, "Optimization of Spray Quenching for Aluminum Extrusion, Forging, or
Continuous Casting," J. Heat Treating, vol. 7, no. 1, pp. 9-18, 1989.

[16] T. Croucher, "Water Quenching Aluminum," 2010. [Online]. Available:

http://www.croucher.us/water-quenching.

[17] Y. A. Cengel and A. J. Ghajar, Heat and mass transfer fundamentals and applications, 4th ed., New
York: McGraw Hill education, 2011.

[18] J. Wall, "Numerical methods for Transient problems," University of Hartford, Hartford, 2009.

[19] L. Lee, "The effects of flow rate, distance and concentration of polymer quenchant on spray
quenching performance of CHTE and IVF probes," Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Massachusetts,
2005.

[20] M. Bahrami, "Simon Fraser University," 10 October 2014. [Online]. Available:

http://www.sfu.ca/~mbahrami/ENSC%20388/Notes/Natural%20Convection.pdf.

[21] T. Blomberg, "Heat conduction in two and three dimensions - computer modelling of building
physics applications," Lund University, Sweden, 1996.

[22] H. Wang, W. Yu and Q. Cai, "Experimental study of heat transfer coefficient on hot steel plate
during water jet," Journal of material processing technology, pp. 1825-1831, 2012.

[23] J. L. M. Hensen and A. E. Nakhi, "Fourier and Biot numbers and the accuracy of conduction
modelling," University of Strathclyde, Glasgow.

[24] J. Y. Murthy, Numerical methods in heat, mass, and momentum transfer, Purdue University, 2002.

35 | P a g e
Appendix
A. Thermal properties of water at different temperatures

Specific
Specific heat Surface enthalpy of Thermal
Temperature Density capacity Viscosity tension vaporization conductivity
(ᵒC) (kg/m3) (J/kg) (kg/m s) (N/m) (KJ/kg) (W/m K)
𝑇 𝜌𝑓 𝜌𝑔 𝑐𝑝,𝑓 𝑐𝑝,𝑔 𝜇𝑓 𝜇𝑔 𝜎 ℎ𝑓𝑔 𝑘

20 (at
1.0017
atmospheric 998.20 _ 4184.1 _ _ _ _ 0.6034
x 10-3
pressure)

100 (saturation 279 12.02 58.9

957.9 0.5955 4217 2029 2257 0.6807
-6 -6
temperature) x 10 x 10 x 10-6

435 (at
2.5901
atmospheric _ 0.3063 _ 2091.8 _ _ _ 0.05895
x 10-5
pressure)

B. Thermal properties of air at 435 ᵒC

Specific heat Thermal

Temperature Density capacity Viscosity conductivity
(ᵒC) (kg/m3) (J/kg) (kg/m s) (W/m K)
𝑇 𝜌 𝑐𝑝 𝜇 𝑘

435 0.4922 1079.6 64.423 x 10-6 0.6961

36 | P a g e
 C. Thermal properties of steel alloy ASTM A322 at 100 ᵒC

Specific heat Thermal

Temperature Density capacity conductivity
(ᵒC) (kg/m3) (J/kg) (W/m K)
𝑇 𝜌 𝑐𝑝 𝑘

100 7872 452 44.6

D. MATLAB coding to compare radiation-convection heat transfer to pure convection

clear all

g=9.81; % gravity
Ts=850; %initial surface temperature
T_oo=20; %temperature of air at infinity
Tf=((Ts+T_oo)/2+273); % average temperature of Ts & T_oo in kelvin
B=1/Tf; %volumetric expansion coefficient
L=1; %length of cylinder
D=0.25; %diameter of cylinder
u=69.423*10^-6; %viscosity of air
k_air=0.0528; %conduction coefficient of air
a_air=99.76*10^-6; %thermal diffusivity of air
Pr=0.6961;
Gr=(L/u)^2*g*B*(Ts-T_oo);
Ra=(g*B*(Ts-T_oo)*L^3)/(u*a_air);
Nu=(0.825+((0.387*Ra^(1/6))/(1+(0.492/Pr)^(9/16))^(8/27)))^2; %Nusse
h=Nu*k_air/L;

display(h)

n=50; %number of nodes

m=1000000; %number of time steps
r0=D/2.0; %full radius of cylinder
c=452; %heat capacity of cylinder
k=44.6; %coduction coefficient of cylinder
p=7872; %density of cylinder
a=k/(p*c); %thermal diffusivity of cylinder
t_total=70000; %total time
t=t_total/m; %time step
time=0:t:t_total; %time scale
r=r0/(n-1); %space step
tT=a*t/r^2; %Fourier number
Bi=h*r0/k;
T=zeros(m,n); %first temperature matrix
T(1,1:n)=Ts;
T1=zeros(m,n); %second temperature matrix

37 | P a g e
T1(1,1:n)=Ts;
o=5.67*10^-8; %Boltzman constant
e=0.67; %emissivity of cylinder

%first loop for radiation-convection

for i=1:m
for j=2:n-1
q_conv(i)=h*(T(i,n)-T_oo);
q_rad(i)=e*o*(T(i,n)^4-T_oo^4);
T(i+1,1)=T(i,1)+4*tT*(T(i,2)-T(i,1)); %energy balance at center
T(i+1,j)=T(i,j)+tT/(j-1)*((j-1-0.5)*T(i,j-1)-2*(j-1)*T(i,j)+(j-
1+0.5)*T(i,j+1)); %energy balance for interior nodes
T(i+1,n)=T(i,n)+2*tT/n*((n-0.5)*(T(i,n-1)-T(i,n))-
(q_conv(i)+q_rad(i))*r0/k); %energy balance at surface
end
end

%loop for pure convection

for i=1:m
for j=2:n-1
q_conv1(i)=h*(T1(i,n)-T_oo);
q_rad1(i)=0;
T1(i+1,1)=T1(i,1)+4*tT*(T1(i,2)-T1(i,1));
T1(i+1,j)=T1(i,j)+tT/(j-1)*((j-1-0.5)*T1(i,j-1)-2*(j-1)*T1(i,j)+(j-
1+0.5)*T1(i,j+1));
T1(i+1,n)=T1(i,n)+2*tT/n*((n-0.5)*(T1(i,n-1)-T1(i,n))-
(q_conv1(i)+q_rad1(i))*r0/k);
end
end

plot(time,T(1:m+1,n),'r');grid on
xlabel('time (s)')
ylabel('Surface temperature (C)')
hold on
plot(time,T1(1:m+1,n))

E. MATLAB code to plot the boiling curve and quench curve

clear all

Ts=850; %surface temperature

Tf=20; %fluid temperature
Tsat=100; %saturation temperature

hfg=2257000; %enthalpy of vaporization

pf=957.9; %density of liquid at saturation temperature
pg=0.5955; %density of vapor at saturation temperature
cpf=4217; %specific heat capacity of liquid at saturation temperature
cpg=2560; %specific heat capacity of vapor at saturation temperature
L=0.8; %length of cylinder
D=0.2; %diameter of cylinder
uf=279*10^-6; %viscosity of liquid at saturation temperature
ug=12.02*10^-6; %viscosity of vapor at saturation temperature

38 | P a g e
kf=682*10^-3; %conduction coefficient of liquid at saturation temperature
Prf=1.76; %Pradtl number of liquid
o_s=58.9*10^-3; %surface tension

n=500;
m=500000;
r0=D/2.0;
c=452;
k=44.6;
p=7872;
a=k/(p*c);
t_total=180;
Q=0.00225; %volumetric flux of water
d=0.0001; %droplet diameter
U=30; %droplet velocity

t=t_total/m;
time=0:t:t_total;
r=r0/(n-1);
tT=a*t/r^2;
T=zeros(m,n);
T(1,1:n)=Ts;
Ts_Tsat(1)=T(1,n)-Tsat;

q_min=3.324*10^6*Q^0.544*U^0.324; %Leidenfrost point

Tmin=2.049*10^2*Q^0.066*U^0.138*d^-0.035; %temperature at Leidenfrost point
subtracted from Tf
q_chf=pg*hfg*Q*2.3*(pf/pg)^0.3*(pf*Q^2*d/o_s)^-0.35*(1+(0.0019*pf*cpf*(Tsat-
Tf))/(pg*hfg)); %critical heat flux
Tchf1=18*((pg*hfg*Q)*(o_s/(pf*Q^2*d))^0.198)^(1/5.5)+Tf; %temperature at
critical heat flux subtracted from Tsat
Tchf=18*((pg*hfg*Q)*(o_s/(pf*Q^2*d))^0.198)^(1/5.5); %temperature at critical
heat flux subtracted from Tsat and Tf

%film boiling loop

for i=1:m
q(i)=63.25*(T(i,n)-Tf)^1.691*Q^0.264*d^-0.062;
if q(i)>q_min
for j=2:n-1
q_film(i)=q(i);
Te(i)=T(i,n)-Tf;
T(i+1,1)=T(i,1)+4*tT*(T(i,2)-T(i,1));
T(i+1,j)=T(i,j)+tT/(j-1)*((j-1-0.5)*T(i,j-1)-2*(j-1)*T(i,j)+(j-
1+0.5)*T(i,j+1));
T(i+1,n)=T(i,n)+2*tT/n*((n-0.5)*(T(i,n-1)-T(i,n))-q_film(i)*r0/k);
Ts_Tsat(i+1)=T(i+1,n)-Tsat;
end
end
end

%to calculate the OSP temperature

%properties taken at average temperature of Tf and Ts

posp=0.3063; %density of water

cposp=2091.8; %specific heat capacity of water
vosp=84.56*10^-6; %kinetic viscosity

39 | P a g e
Re=U*d/vosp;
kosp=0.05895; %thermal conductivity of water
aosp=kosp/(posp*cposp); %thermal diffusity of water
Prosp=vosp/aosp; %Prandtl number
Tosp=13.43*Re^0.167*Prosp^0.123*(kosp/d)^0.22+Tf; %OSP temperature subtracted
from Tsat

%loop for transition boiling

for i=max(size(q_film))+1:m
Te(i)=T(i,n)-Tf;
q(i)=q_chf-((q_chf-q_min)/(Tchf-Tmin)^3)*(Tchf^3-
3*Tchf^2*Tmin+6*Tchf*Tmin*Te(i)-3*(Tchf+Tmin)*Te(i)^2+2*Te(i)^3);
if T(i,n)>Tchf1
for j=2:n-1
q_tran(i)=q(i);
T(i+1,1)=T(i,1)+4*tT*(T(i,2)-T(i,1));
T(i+1,j)=T(i,j)+tT/(j-1)*((j-1-0.5)*T(i,j-1)-2*(j-1)*T(i,j)+(j-
1+0.5)*T(i,j+1));
T(i+1,n)=T(i,n)+2*tT/n*((n-0.5)*(T(i,n-1)-T(i,n))-q_tran(i)*r0/k);
Ts_Tsat(i)=T(i+1,n)-Tsat;
end
end

end

%loop for nucleate boiling

for i=max(size(q_tran))+1:m
Te(i)=T(i,n)-Tf;

q(i)=uf*hfg*0.00479/d*(cpf*Te(i)/hfg)^5.75*(pf/pg)^2.5*(pf*(Q/1.7)^2*d/o_s)^0
.35;
if T(i,n)>Tosp
for j=2:n-1
q_nuc(i)=q(i);
T(i+1,1)=T(i,1)+4*tT*(T(i,2)-T(i,1));
T(i+1,j)=T(i,j)+tT/(j-1)*((j-1-0.5)*T(i,j-1)-2*(j-1)*T(i,j)+(j-
1+0.5)*T(i,j+1));
T(i+1,n)=T(i,n)+2*tT/n*((n-0.5)*(T(i,n-1)-T(i,n))-q_nuc(i)*r0/k);
Ts_Tsat(i)=T(i+1,n)-Tsat;
end
end
end

%speed-up loop (does not add anything to the curves)

for i=max(size(q_tran)):max(size(q_nuc))
if T(i,n)>T(i+1,n)
Te(i)=Te(i);
Ts_Tsat(i)=Ts_Tsat(i);
q(i)=q(i);
else
Te(i)=T(i+1);
Ts_Tsat(i)=Ts_Tsat(i+1);
q(i)=q(i+1);
end
end

40 | P a g e
 h=q(i-1)/Te(i-1); %heat transfer coefficient at single phase regime

%single phase loop

for i=max(size(q_nuc))+1:m
if T(i,n)>Tf
Te(i)=T(i,n)-Tf;
q(i)=h*Te(i);
for j=2:n-1
T(i+1,1)=T(i,1)+4*tT*(T(i,2)-T(i,1));
T(i+1,j)=T(i,j)+tT/(j-1)*((j-1-0.5)*T(i,j-1)-2*(j-1)*T(i,j)+(j-
1+0.5)*T(i,j+1));
T(i+1,n)=T(i,n)+2*tT/n*((n-0.5)*(T(i,n-1)-T(i,n))-q(i)*r0/k);
Ts_Tsat(i)=T(i+1,n)-Tsat;
end
end
end

figure
plot(Ts_Tsat,q(1:max(size(Ts_Tsat)))); grid on
xlabel('Ts-Tsat (C)')
ylabel('heat flux (W/m^2)')
figure
plot(time(1:max(size(Ts_Tsat))),T(1:max(size(Ts_Tsat)),1),'--');grid on
xlabel('time (s)')
ylabel('surface temperature (C)')
hold on
plot(time(1:max(size(Ts_Tsat))),T(1:max(size(Ts_Tsat)),n))
legend('Center temperature profile','Surface temperature profile')

41 | P a g e

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