Literature review of heat treatment simulations with respect to phase transformation, residual stresses and distortion

A literature review of numerical simulations of heat treatment was performed. The model used in the numerical simulation can be divided into three major parts that are mutually coupled: temperature calculation, phase transformation and mechanical response. The parts and couplings are introduced; examples, theoretical results and verifications of different models are presented to show the accuracy of the calculations compared with experiments. It was found that today, the simulations are performed in two steps, the calculation of temperature history 2-way coupled with phase transformation, and the mechanical response as a subsequent calculation of distortion and residual stresses taking the temperature history as well as the actual phase volume fractions into account. Research subjects are the diffusion-controlled phase transformation in non-isothermal cooling and the stress dependency of phase transformations. Other research topics concern the type of hardening as laser surface hardening.