Numerical Simulation of Stress and Deformation for a Duplex Stainless Steel Impeller during Casting and Heat Treatment Processes

A large-scale, thin wall duplex stainless steel impeller with complex geometry was deformed severely and unpredictably during casting and heat treatment processes resulted in dimensional failure for the final part. In this paper, the distortion of the impeller during casting and heat treatment was calculated. A commercial software, Experto-ViewCast, was used to simulate the transient heat transfer, solidification and mechanical behaviors during the casting and the heat treatment process. The coupled set of governing differential equations for mass, energy and mechanical balance were solved by finite control volume and finite element method. A thermoelastic-visco-plastic rheological model was used to compute the constrained shrinkage of the casting. At each time increment, a coupling of the heat transfer and mechanics was performed. Comparison of the experimental measurements with the model predictions showed good agreement. From the calculated displacements of key points of the blade, the proper inverse displacements were determined to provide an optimum casting pattern and to achieve a uniform and reasonable machining allowance for both faces of the blade.

Chemical Compositions,Microstructure and Mechanical Properties of Roll Core used Ductile Iron in Centrifugal Casting Composite Rolls

The industrial manufacture processes of three kinds of roll core used ductile irons have been investigated via systematical experiments. EfFects of the ratio of C/Si, pig iron, nodularizer and alloying method on the microstructure and mechanical properties of the heavy section ductile iron have been analyzed. It has been found that when treated with RE-Mg plus Sb, high quality nodular castings can be produced even if much anti spheroidizing alloy elements are included in the pig iron. The alloy element Sb played an important role in the control of graphite morphology.

Numerical study of macrosegregation formation of ingot cast in normal sand mold and water-cooled sand mold

Formation of macrosegregation of 5 t steel ingots cast in sand molds with and without water-cooled copper tube is simulated by solving macroscopic mass, momentum, species and energy conservation equations with the consideration of shrinkage formation. Predicted macrosegregation pattern of the ingots shows a fair agreement with the experimental data. Both calculations and experiments reveal that some positive segregation patches are formed at the bottom of ingot. With the water-cooled copper tube inserted in the sand mold, the ingot cast has a less intensive macrosegregation. Mechanisms of macrosegregation formation are numerically analyzed. Explanations regarding the influences of fluid flow and temperature change upon the segregation formation are provided.

Microstructure Evolution of a Cold-rolled 25Cr-7Ni-3Mo-0.2N Duplex Stainless Steel during Two-step Aging Treatments

A cold-rolled 25Cr-7Ni-3Mo-0.2N duplex stainless steel（DSS） has been aged in two steps. Firstly, the aging treatment at interval of 50℃ in a temperature range from 900 to 1050℃ was carried out in order to obtain fine grains. Secondly, another aging treatment at 850℃ was performed to reveal the σ-phase precipitation behavior. A detailed microstructure evolution during those two aging steps was observed by the optical microscope（OM）, the scanning electron microscope（SEM）, the electron backscatter difraction（EBSD） and the transmission electron microscope（TEM）. The results revealed that the micro-duplex structure with grain size of lower than 10 μm appeared after the first aging step. However, their grain size was rapidly increased with increasing aging temperature. Meanwhile, the δ → γ and/or δ → γ ＋ σ transformations took place in association with the occurrence of the extensive recovery or a little recrystallization in δ-grains. During the second aging treatment, σ-phase mainly nucleated at δ/γ interfaces and further grew along those interfaces into various morphologies（e.g., butterfly and granule）. A novel precipitation behavior was found in this study that the γ-grain boundaries bulged not only into the δ-grains as usual, but abnormally into the σ-phase precipitates without the prior precipitation of the isolated secondary austenite γ2or another phases.

Numerical Simulation of Solidification of Work Roll in Centrifugal Casting Process

A program on the solidification process of horizontal centrifugal casting coupled with eutectic carbides segregation has been developed in this paper. Due to the geometrical features of work roll, a cylindrical coordinate system was used. The temperature field of the outer layer at the end of filling process was imported as the initial temperature condition for the solidification process. The model of eutectic carbides segregation caused by different densities between eutectic MC and the molten steel was coupled in the program. The temperature field of the outer layer of work roll during horizontal centrifugal casting process was investigated. Results show that the outer layer has a ＂sandwich shape＂ solid fraction manner. Results also indicate that the segregation of eutectic MC is quite severe during centrifugal casting process. It forms four zones of different content of carbides in radial direction. The simulated results of MC carbides segregation phenomenon agree with the experimental observations.