International Scientific Journals
of Scientific Technical Union of Mechanical Engineering "Industry 4.0"

The article presents a comparison of different computational approaches used to study the surface treatment of a NiCrMoV steel with 0.55% Carbon content by a plasma jet. Metallographic observations show formation of martensite layer due to high cooling rate by heat transfer into the bulk steel. Heat affected zone (HAZ) was 1 mm deep and 10-12 mm wide. The treated surface maximum hardness was measured at 763 HV0.1 whereas untreated steel was at 210 HV 0.1. The computation indicates a hardening sink near the surface that went undetected in the experimental observations. The ability of the different computational approaches to explore the process related phenomena and to give reliable results is put into discussion.