Influence of Induction Hardening Process on Camshafts’ Residual Stresses

Camshaft is a key part of marine diesel engines. However, the large residual stresses resulting from the induction hardening to which the cams are submitted may lead to cracks on their contacting surfaces. These cracks have great influence in the service life of the shaft. In order to find the relationship between the induction hardening process parameters and the residual stress field, the process was simulated by the finite element method, and the SYSWELD and ANSYS software were used. The temperature distribution during hardening process and stress field of the camshaft after the process were obtained and analyzed. The thickness of the hardening layer was calculated. The simulation results were validated by residual stress measurement experiments and showed a good agreement with the practice. The method reported on the present paper provides an efficient way to analyze the camshaft induction hardening process and avoid the surface failure of the cams.