Patent ID: 8437991

Claim:
A system to automatically predict a distribution of heat transfer coefficients of a casting during a quenching process, the system comprising: an information input configured to receive information relating to at least one of a defined quenching process, a defined casting quenched via the defined quenching process, a distribution of heat transfer coefficients of the defined casting obtained during the defined quenching process, and a temperature-time profile of the defined casting; an information output configured to convey information relating to the heat transfer coefficient distribution of the casting predicted by the system; a processing unit; and a non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising a computer-readable program code embodied therein, the computer-readable medium cooperative with the processing unit, the information input, and the information output such that the information input operated upon by the processing unit and computer-readable program code is presented to the information output as the distribution of heat transfer coefficients of the casting, automatically predicted by the system, the computer-readable program code comprising a simulation module, a heat transfer modeling module, an optimization module, and a weight function modeling module: wherein the simulation module simulates a quenching process replicating the defined quenching process, and a virtual casting replicating the defined casting to determine a distribution of heat-transfer coefficients for the virtual casting, wherein the heat transfer modeling module simulates a heat transfer of the virtual casting with the determined heat transfer coefficient distribution to determine a temperature-time profile of the virtual casting, wherein the optimization module: compares the temperature-time profile of the virtual casting with the temperature-time profile of the casting; and adjusts the determined heat transfer coefficient distribution using a modification factor if a difference between the temperature-time profile of the virtual casting and the temperature-time profile of the casting exceeds a preset condition; and wherein the weight function modeling module adjusts the determined heat transfer coefficient with a modification factor indicative of a modification to the defined quenching process and wherein the weight function modeling module uses an equation expressed as: HTC=K 1 K 2 K 3 . . . K n ·HTC 0 where, HTC 0 =the standard HTC at a baseline condition, unit in W/m 2 K; K 1 , K 2 , K 3 , . . . , K n =the modification factors, and wherein the modification factors are determined empirically; and wherein the adjusted heat transfer coefficient distribution is predictive of the distribution of heat transfer coefficients for a casting made using the simulated quenching process.