Diagnosis parameters of mold filling pattern for optimization of a casting system

For optimal design of a gating system,the setting of diagnosis parameters is very important.In this study,the permanent mold casting process was selected because most of the other casting processes have more complicated factors that influence the mold filling pattern compared to the permanent mold casting process,such as the surface roughness of mold,gas generation from the mold wash and binder of sand mold,and the gas permeability through a sand mold,etc.Two diagnosis parameters(flow rate difference and arrival time difference) of molten metal flow pattern in the numerical simulation are suggested for design of an optimum casting system with a permanent mold.The results show that the arrival time difference can be used as one important diagnosis parameter of the complexity of the runner system and its usefulness has been verified via making aluminum parts using permanent mold casting(Fig.9).

Study on accuracy of casting flow simulation

In the field of casting flow simulation, the application of body-fitted coordinate(BFC) has not been widely used due to the difficulty and low efficiency of grid generation, despite the availability of good quality analysis results. Cartesian coordinates, on the other hand, have been used predominantly in casting process simulations because of their relatively easy and fast grid generation. However, Cartesian grid systems cannot obtain accurate results because they cannot express the geometries properly. In this study, Cut Cell method was applied to solve this problem. The three-dimensional incompressible viscous governing equation was analyzed using a function defined for the volume and area of the casting in the cutting cell. Using the Cut Cell method, accurate flow analysis results were also obtained in the Cartesian grid systems. The tests of simple shape and the applications of actual casting product have been tried with Cut Cell method.

A study on effects of ceramic foam filter on flow aspect through water modeling experiment

Casting defects that are closely related to entrapped air bubbles and metallic oxides occur very frequently in the sand mold casting process. Many researchers have shown that these defects can be reduced by adopting an appropriate gating system design. However, it is difficult for field engineers to identify a specific gating system that is more appropriate for their products. In this study, we tried to draw a comparison between two gating system designs with and without a ceramic foam filter. The ceramic foam filter was added to the horizontal runner just after the down sprue to prevent air bubble generation and reduce turbulence without a change of gating system design. The water modeling experiment was conducted with four different amounts of the initial volumes of water in the reservoir to verify the effects of initial pouring velocity. The results of the experiment applying the filter showed remarkably changed flow characteristics. The use of the filter was found to convert the flow pattern of water in the desired direction. The ceramic foam filter performed well to reduce flow velocity and stabilize the water stream.The flow pattern without a filter can be improved significantly even with the the use of just a 10 PPI irregular filter. Although the study confirmed that use of the filter may change the flow characteristics, it needs to be noted that the use of the ceramic filter alone cannot solve all the problems caused by a poorly designed gating system.

A comparative study of interface reconstruction algorithms in molten metal flow

In the present research,two numerical schemes for improving the accuracy of the solution in the flow simulation of molten metal were applied.One method is the Piecewise Linear Interface Calculation(PLIC) method and the other is the Donor-Acceptor(D-A) method.To verify the module of the interface reconstruction algorithms,simple problems were tested.After these validations,the accuracy and efficiency of these two methods were compared by simulating various real products.On the numerical simulation of free surface flow,it is possible for the PLIC method to track very accurately the interface between phases.The PLIC method,however,has the weak point in that a lot of computational time is required,though it shows the more accurate interface reconstruction.The Donor-Acceptor method has enough effectiveness in the macro-observation of a mold filling sequence though it shows inferior accuracy.Therefore,for the problems that need the accurate solution,PLIC is more appropriate than D-A.More accuracy may cause less efficiency in numerical analysis.Which method between D-A method and PLIC method should be chosen depends on the product.

Prediction of mechanical properties of Al alloys with change of cooling rate

The solidification process significantly affects the mechanical properties and there are lots of factors that affect the solidification process.Much progress has been made in the research on the effect of solidification on mechanical properties.Among them,the PF(Phase Field) model and CA(Cellular Automata) model are widely used as simulation methods which can predict nucleation and its growth,and the size and morphology of the grains during solidification.Although they can give accurate calculation results,it needs too much computational memory and calculation time.So it is difficult to apply the simulation to the real production process.In this study,a more practical simulation approach which can predict the mechanical properties of real aluminum alloys is proposed,by identifying through experiment the relationship between cooling rate and SDAS(Secondary Dendrite Arm Spacing) and mechanical properties.The experimentally measured values and the values predicted by simulation have relatively small differences and the mechanical properties of a variety of Al alloys are expected to be predicted before casting through use of the simulation.