Correlations for the thermal conductivity of selected steel grades as a function of temperature in the range of 0–800°C

Reliable knowledge of thermo-physical properties of materials is essential for the interpretation of solidification behaviour, forming, heat treatment and joining of metallic systems. It is also a precondition for precise simulation calculations of technological processes. Numerical calculations usually require the knowledge of temperature dependencies of three basic thermo-physical properties: thermal conductivity, heat capacity and density. The objective of this work is to find a correlation that fits the thermal conductivity of selected steel grades as a function of temperature (within the range of 0–800 ◦ C) and carbon content (within the range of 0.1–0.6%). The starting point for the analysis are the experimental data on thermal conductivity taken from literature. Using the method of least squares it was possible to fit an equation which allows calculating the thermal conductivity of steel depending on the temperature and carbon content. Two kinds of equations have been analyzed: a linear one (a linear model) and a second degree polynomial (a non-linear model). The thermal conductivity obtained by linear and nonlinear models varies on average from the measured values by 3% and 2.6% respectively.