Investigation on salts mixture effect to the Leidenfrost temperature during spray quenching with use of actual cooling water from metal industries

This experimental work aims to study the effect of salts mixture solution in the metal quenching process. Discs of aluminum alloy AA6082 are heated up to 560 °C and then exposed to a constant spray flux of 3 kg/m2s. This cooling process experiment uses an infrared camera to record the temperature history. Eight types of actual water used in the different metal processing industries are tested individually for their cooling capacity. From the content analysis, there are six kinds of charged ions found having a dominant amount in every type, namely Mg2+, SO42-, Ca2+, CO32–, Na+, and Cl-. Then, by using deionized water as a reference, the influence of the individual ion over the increase of Leidenfrost temperature is investigated. The results are then compared to the single-salt solution of MgSO4. Mg2+ and SO42- are acknowledged as the most dominant ions contributing to the highest increase of Leidenfrost temperature. Comparing the influence of the salt mixture in the actual water to the single-salt solution will give insight not only on the most dominant specie but also its behavior when present as a mixture.