Study and Application of Mold Filling Simulation of Shaped Castings

In this paper, an algorithm for simulating fluid flow and heat transfer for mold filling of shaped castings is presented. The main features of the algorithm include: 1) a simple but practical technique based on VOF method to determine free surface, 2) an explicit scheme of enthalpy to solve the energy equation more efficiently, and 3) an effective treatment to modify the flux deviation due to pressure iteration. In order to verify these methods, well controlled experiments have been repeatedly done with both water analog and gray iron pouring experiments to record the flow patterns and temperature variations. The calculated results are in accordance with the experimental ones. For the applications, the simulated initial temperature distribution right after mold filling was used to analyse subsequent solidification and to predict shrinkage defects. Actual castings were poured and tested in a foundry plant. The reuslts show that the defects predication with considering fluid flow effects is more precise than that without considering the effects.

Study on Numerical Simulation of Mold Filling and Heat Transfer in Die Casting Process

A 3-D mathematical model considering turbulence phenomena has been established based on a computational fluid dynamics technique, so called 3-D SOLA-VOF (Solution Algorithm-Volume of Fluid), to simulate the fluid flow of mold filling process of die casting. In addition, the mathematical model for simulating the heat transfer in die casting process has also been established. The computation program has been developed by the authors with the finite difference method (FDM) recently. As verification, the mold filling process of a S-shaped die casting has been simulated and the simulation results coincide with that of the benchmark test. Finally, as a practical application, the gating design of a motorcycle component was modified by the mold filling simulation and the dies design of another motorcycle component was optimized by the heat transfer simulation. All the optimized designs were verified by the production practice.

STUDY ON NUMERICAL SIMULATION OF MOLD-FILLING AND SOLIDIFICATION PROCESSES OF SHAPED CASTING

The latest progress on the study of numerical simulation of mold filling and solidification process of shaped casting is reviewed. In mold filling process simulation of castings, the SOLA VOF algorithmis is improved in efficient free surface treatment and turbulence consideration, and parallel computational techniques are implemented to accelerate the fluid flow calculation time as well. Methods for predication of shrinkage defects of steel castings and S G. iron castings are developed based on the solidification simulation. In order to reduce the residual stress and deformation of castings, a combined FDM/FEM method is implemented for the modelling of stresses. Numerical models for the simulation of micro structure and prediction of mechanical properties of S G. iron are developed. The verifications and applications of the simulation software show that the models and techniques adopted in current research work are efficient and appropriate for the numerical simulation of shaped castings.