Steel nitriding is a thermo-chemical process leading to surface hardening and improvement in fatigue properties. The process is strongly influenced by many different variables such as steel composition, nitrogen potential, temperature, time, and quenching media. In the present study, the influence of such parameters affecting physic-chemical and mechanical properties of nitride steels was evaluated. The aim was to streamline the process by numerical–experimental analysis allowing defining the optimal conditions for the success of the process. Input parameters–output results correlations were calculated through the employment of a multi-objective optimization software, modeFRONTIER (Esteco). The mechanical and microstructural results belonging to the nitriding process, performed with different processing conditions for various steels, are presented. The data were employed to obtain the analytical equations describing nitriding behavior as a function of nitriding parameters and steel composition. The obtained model was validated, through control designs, and optimized by taking into account physical and processing conditions. heat treatment temperature nitrogen potential nitriding temperature nitriding time nitrogen concentration at xxx μm from the surface distance from the surface of the starting point of ε phase distance from the surface of the ending point of ε phase distance from the surface of the starting point of γ′ phase distance from the surface of the ending point of γ′ phase microhardness at xxx μm from the surface residual stresses at xxx μm from the surface 
Steel nitriding optimization through multi-objective and FEM analysis