Fast air quench for Aluminum plates
Fast air quench for Aluminum plates
(OP)
I've got racks of aluminum plates-- 1/4 inch thick, about 1500 lbs total-- solution treated to 870F that are then water quenched to achieve T6. Works pretty well if you don't mind distortion effects from the thermal shock.
I want to change this to an air quench, but there is a time factor in the process. We have something like 30 seconds to reduce back down to normal room temps.
Can anyone help me figure out what kind of volume of air would be required? Are we talking tanks of compressed air, or could a few good blowers do the job?





RE: Fast air quench for Aluminum plates
Your total joule heat divided by the time
= 500 J/gm-°F * 1500 lb * 800°F / 30 s = 9 gigawatts
Assuming 14 W/m^2-°F and 80 m^2 of surface area, you'd only be able to flow 444 kW
With water, I assume there's lots of sturm and drang, with plenty of evaporation, which works very well at sucking up joules.
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RE: Fast air quench for Aluminum plates
RE: Fast air quench for Aluminum plates
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RE: Fast air quench for Aluminum plates
RE: Fast air quench for Aluminum plates
The water quench tank contains approximately 2000 cubic feet of water. What would be the volume of air that could provide equivalent cooling?
RE: Fast air quench for Aluminum plates
It's only 9 MW, duh...
I did do the airflow, resulting in 444 kW of heat removal for a fairly high airflow.
To recap, for your 30 second timeline, you need to have a heat flow of 9 megawatts. For a reasonable air flow, you can only achieve about 400 kW, that's a factor of 25 difference.
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RE: Fast air quench for Aluminum plates
RE: Fast air quench for Aluminum plates
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RE: Fast air quench for Aluminum plates
So a (12 x 25 x 1.5 x 1.15 =~ ) 520 MPH airstream might be in the ballpark?
RE: Fast air quench for Aluminum plates
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