Simulation of the influence of carbon profile and dimensions on distortion behaviour of SAE 5120 discs by using a design of experiment

Abstract In order to detect the most important influencing factors on distortion in carburising processes, it is helpful to use a simulation tool. Additionally, design of experiments (DoE) can help to perform the needed simulations in a well structured, clearly arranged manner. The objective of this work is to detect the influencing factors of carburising processes on the simulated results of the distortion of a disc with a centred hole. Therefore, a full factorial DoE was set up and analysed. The advantage of this procedure is the possibility to find out not only the influence of the main factors, but also the interactions between the different ranges. In this work, the varied factors are the surface carbon content, the carburising depth and as a geometrical aspect the thickness of the disc. The responses under investigation are relative changes in the dimension of the discs. In order to analyse the design of experiments, two different ways were used. At first, the influencing factors were identified by using a probability plot. Secondly, the method “analysis of variance” was used which needs a scattering in the results. Therefore, an artificial scattering was implemented based on experimental scatter bands.