凝固视野下的中国古代青铜器等壁厚现象观察与研究

Uniform Wall Thickness on Ancient Chinese Bronzes:A Post-casting Perspective

等壁厚设计在中国古代青铜器中应用非常普遍,二里头文化晚期的青铜容器上就已出现器物壁厚均等的设计。本文在梳理学界对等厚现象研究的基础上,使用凝固模拟软件ProCAST对青铜鼎的等壁厚设计进行精准模拟,计算并比较等壁厚与非等壁厚设计在凝固过程中的差异。实验研究发现柱足鼎的等壁厚设计最多可缩短52%的凝固时间差,并在很大程度上消除了器物中的铸造缺陷。等壁厚的应用在宏观上降低了铸件的缺陷、提高了铸造成功率,在微观上优化了器物的组织、提升了器物的机械性能,是我国青铜时代最重要的铸造设计基本原则之一。

The design of uniform wall thickness was widely noticed on ancient Chinese bronzes.For example,bronze vessels dating to the late Erlitou Culture period already show uniform wall thickness.Based on an overview of previous research on uniform wall thickness,this paper introduces a solidification simulation software,ProCAST,to accurately simulate the design of uniform wall thickness of bronze ding-tripod,in the hope of calculating and comparing the differences between the design of uniform wall thickness and those of non-uniform wall thickness in the solidification process.Our results show that the uniform wall thickness design of ding-tripod can shorten the solidification time by up to52%and eliminate casting defects to a large extent.The application of uniform wall thickness reduces the casting defects and improves the success rate of casting on the macro level,and it optimizes the structure and improves the mechanical properties of cast bronzes,which we propose is one of the most important bronze casting principles in Bronze Age China.