Abstract
The cooling behavior of neem and mineral oil was obtained using instrumented ISO 9950 Inconel probe. Flash, fire points and the viscosity of quenching media were measured. These oils were used to quench harden AISI 1045 and AISI 1090 grade steel probes of section diameters 25 and 50 mm. (The top and bottom faces of steel probes were coated with insulating paste to minimize end effects of heat transfer during quenching.) The measured temperature data in steel probes were used to estimate spatiotemporal heat flux by solving inverse heat conduction problem at the interface of the probe/quenching medium. The estimated heat flux transients, microstructure, and hardness measurements were found to be similar for both oils indicating the potential application of neem oil as quenchant for heat treatment of steels.
