FEATURE ADVANCED MATERIALS & PROCESSES | APRIL 2025 51 LIFE CYCLE ANALYSIS AND CARBON FOOTPRINT OF CARBURIZATION With stricter worldwide regulations of environmental emissions, heat treaters are increasingly required to report Scope 1 (direct emissions) and, more commonly, Scopes 2 and 3 (indirect emissions). To assist PHTC’s members in quantifying these emissions, a Python-based model was developed to predict energy consumption and greenhouse gas CO2-equivalent emissions. This project was led by Prof. Fu Zhao, a faculty member in mechanical engineering and environmental and ecological engineering. The model uses combustion and heat transfer modeling, including radiation between radiant tubes, walls, gas media, and load material; convection in the furnace; conduction in the load material; and conduction through insulated furnace walls to the atmosphere. This tool enables members to quantify direct carbon emissions from the combustion of fuel and endothermic gas release, as well as Scope 2 emissions from electricity usage of furnace elements, fans, motors, sensors, and more, as shown in Fig. 3. The software can also aid in carburization process selection and purchasing decisions for new furnaces, upgrades, and insulation replacement. CURRENT PROJECTS PHTC projects typically last 18-24 months, with many projects being renewed or continued via adjunct and directly sponsored projects from industry members. Active research projects within PHTC include: • Contact fatigue properties of heat treated medium carbon steel gears via surface mechanical testing (Professors Xinghang Zhang, Haiyan Wang, and Zhongxia Shang) • Stress-relaxation approach to predicting residual stresses in quenched aluminum alloys (Professors Kevin Trumble and Matt Krane) • Quantifying carbon footprint of heat treatment processes via life cycle assessment (Professor Fu Zhao) • Sustainable austempering process development (Professors David Johnson, Kenneth Sandhage, Matthew Krane, Michael Titus, and Jeff Youngblood) CENTER OPERATION AND OUTLOOK Inspired by the successful launch of the Center for Surface Engineering and Enhancement (CSEE) at Purdue, PHTC operates with two virtual meetings in Winter/ Spring (December and March) and two in-person meetings in Summer/Fall (May and September). When projects become available, industry members pitch one-sentence ideas, which are then sent to all Purdue Materials Engineering faculty and collaborators. Where other expertise is sought, faculty from across campus are solicited to pitch ideas and team with materials engineering faculty to solve industry problems. Interested faculty members pitch 15-min. project presentations and voting industry members select the projects in a very collaborative session. At least two detailed scoping sessions are held prior to the start of the project, ensuring that the project launches quickly and meets industry members’ needs. Members of CSEE, PHTC, or the new Purdue Center for Metal Casting (PCMC) at Purdue receive favorable IP terms, member/faculty/student networking opportunities, and project and lab discounts. Purdue and PHTC faculty operate numerous atmosphere, controlled atmosphere, and vacuum (metal and graphite element) furnaces, optical and electron microscopes, residual stress analyzers, high temperature calorimeters, dilatometers, 3D x-ray microscopes, and many mechanical and nanomechanical test frames and devices that all assist in advancing the science of heat treating and turning new technologies into practice. PHTC is committed to solving today’s toughest problems and driving the innovations that will shape tomorrow’s solutions. ~HTPro For more information: Mark Gruninger, managing director, mgruninger@purdue.edu; and Michael Titus, technical director, PHTC, titus9@purdue.edu, engineering.purdue. edu/MSE/PHTC. Fig. 3 — Overview of life cycle analysis program for modeling carburization processes using endothermic gas with labeled inputs, outputs, and models utilized. 7
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