Investigation of the Influence of Including or Omitting the Oxide Layer on the Result of Identifying the Local Boundary Condition during Water Spray Cooling

In the case of products made of steel, the presence of an oxide layer, which is formed during the steel production process as a result of high temperature, has a significant impact on the process of heat removal from the surface of the cooled material. For this reason, it is necessary to take into account the presence of the oxide layer in mathematical and numerical models used to simulate the distribution of the temperature field in cooled steel products. These models are based on the boundary conditions identified for given production conditions. This paper presents a comparison of the results of the identification of the boundary condition during water spray cooling of Armco iron with the use of the inverse solution. Numerical calculations were carried out using two models of heat conduction. In the first model, the presence of an oxide layer with different thermophysical properties than the base material (Armco iron) was taken into account. The second model assumed no oxide layer on the cooled Armco iron surface. It was found that the inverse solution obtained in the case of the heat conduction model taking into account the thickness of the oxide layer is correct in time and as a function of temperature. Thus, the boundary condition model obtained as a function of temperature is universal. However, this model requires an additional layer of oxides with different thermophysical properties than the base material to be included in the finite element model (FEM). Based on the conducted uncertainty tests of the inverse solution, it was found that the results of the determined boundary condition in the absence of the oxide layer on the cooled surface are subject to an error higher than 10% in comparison to the maximum reference value of the heat transfer coefficient.