Optimal Design of Inductor Coils for Surface Hardening

Abstract

The paper describes the new approach to optimization of design characteristics of induction coils and electric parameters of power supply for surface hardening of steel stepped cylinder shafts or similar L-shaped workpiece. The optimal inductor design problem is formulated for a two-dimensional non-linear numerical model of closely coupled electromagnetic and temperature fields using ANSYS Mechanical APDL software. The alternance method is used for determining an optimal design of hardening coil and selection of advanced process recipe of induction systems with distributed parameters. The article reveals the results of parametric optimization of induction heat treatment system including optimal values of optimized parameters.