Multi-physical simulation of an inductive heat treatment process on 50CrMo4 steel rods and validation by HEXRD cross-sectional measurements

A multi-physical finite element model for the induction hardening of a 50CrMo4 steel rod was implemented in Abaqus, including an electromagnetic, thermal, mechanical, and metallurgical model describing the individual phenomena taking place during the process. For induction heating, a linearization scheme for the nonlinear permeability of steel was implemented. The model was validated by recreating a previously published experiment with the model and using the calculated residual stress data as a comparison to the measured stresses. To ensure a valid comparison, the sample preparation process and measurement methodology were considered for the simulation and a good agreement between the measured and calculated stress distributions was obtained. Thus the distribution and time evolution of several quantities such as temperature, phase fractions and plastic strain can be examined to gain insight into the formation of residual stresses.