Aluminum alloys are used intensively by the automotive industry to comply with environmental and fuel consumption regulations. These alloys were first used in the manufacture of power train components, and they have extended their use in parts and assemblies of structural components. Power train and structural components have to be heat treated to achieve the strength and hardness demanded, which imply solution treating, quenching and aging. Quenching is the most critical part of processing, as the material has to be cooled at rates high enough to allow for the hardening elements to remain in solution, but the rate has to be controlled to avoid distortion or, in some cases, catastrophic failure. Distortion is associated with the geometry of the piece, as heavy components have sections of different volume, which will cool at different rates, or, in the case of long thin pieces, warpage may arise from variations in cooling rate along the length of the part. This work presents the results of a series of tests carried out with the aim to evaluate the variation of the heat transfer coefficients that take occur in pieces made of a heat treatable wrought aluminum alloy cooled in different media. The heat transfer coefficients were used to compute the temperature distribution of a modified version of the Navy C specimen.

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