Effect of heat treatment modes on the geometric stability of metal structural elements
Abstract
The present study examined the influence of various heat treatment modes on the geometric stability of metal elements made of St3, 20Kh, 09G2S, and St45 steels with thicknesses ranging from 10 to 50 mm and lengths of 400–500 mm. Samples were heated to 750, 800, 850, 900, and 950 °C with holding times of 30, 60, and 90 min, followed by cooling in water, oil, air, or in the furnace, under three fastening conditions: no fastening, rigid fastening, and flexible fastening. The results showed that an increasing heating temperature intensifies grain growth and phase transformations, leading to volume changes and local geometric distortions. Rapid cooling, especially water quenching, generated high internal stresses, causing bending and warping; in loosely fixed St45 samples with a thickness of 40 mm, residual deformation reached 2.4 mm. Annealing resulted in the lowest deformation values due to effective stress relaxation, whereas normalization and ageing exhibited intermediate values. Rigid fastening reduced visible deformation to approximately 1.3 mm but contributed to the accumulation of internal stresses, whereas flexible fastening proved most effective, limiting deformation to about 0.9 mm by compensating for thermal expansion. Alloyed steels demonstrated a lower tendency toward thermal deformation than carbon steels, and massive elements with complex geometries showed increased susceptibility to local overheating and distortion. These findings are of practical importance for optimizing heat treatment parameters, selecting appropriate cooling and fastening methods, and improving the geometric accuracy and reliability of metal structures in industrial production, particularly for enterprises in Kyrgyzstan and China.
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