Numerical methods as non‐destructive, indirect tool in assessment of post‐fire properties of Q&T steels

Abstract

Recent years have seen significant progress in methods and tools for modeling and simulating production processes, enabling the appropriate design and shaping of the internal structure of engineering materials subjected to controlled manufacturing processes, ensuring that the resulting mechanical properties meet user needs. This also applies to steel as a construction material, particularly those varieties and grades that, according to the accepted classification, can be classified as alloy steels intended for thermal quenching and tempering. The increasingly functional computational tools available on the market are becoming useful not only in industrial practice but also in scientific research, as they offer the potential for significant reductions in research costs by reducing the number of experiments required. In this context, computer‐aided modeling of phase transformations and the generation of CCT and TTT diagrams based on knowledge of the chemical composition of the steel and the specified austenitization parameters are crucial. The paper discusses the example of analyses conducted using JMatPro software, which synergistically utilizes thermodynamic and physical models to describe phenomena related to phase transformations, as one of the auxiliary tools in post‐fire assessment of bolt steel, quenched and tempered in a production process, previously subjected to various heating and cooling scenarios, simulating fire impacts.