Finite el ement model l i ng of

solidification in sand casti ngs

empl oyi ng an i mpl i ci t - expl i ci t
al gori thm
M. S a mo n d s , K. Mo r g a n a n d R. W. Le wi s
The f i ni t e el ement met hod is used t o model t he sol i di f i cat i on process i n a
sand casti ng. Wi t h a r el at i vel y coarse mesh, t her e is good agr eement
bet ween numer i cal and exper i ment al resul ts. An i mp l i c i t - e x p l i c i t t i me-
st eppi ng al gor i t hm demonst r at ed si gni f i cant c omput er t i me savings when
t he appr opr i at e sol ver was i mpl ement ed. Consi der at i on is also gi ven t o t he
pr obl em of capaci t ance mat r i x l umpi ng when quadr at i c el ement s are
empl oyed.
Key wor ds: mat hemat i cal model s, f i ni t e el ement , sand casti ngs, i mp l i c i t -
ex pl i c i t al gor i t hm
There has been increasing interest over the past t wo decades
in the use of numeri cal met hods t o model solidification
processes in metal castings. ~-3 With an accurat e predictive
model , the f oundr y will be able t o dramat i cal l y reduce
shrinkage por osi t y, det ermi ne the opt i mum pl acement and
size of risers, minimize trial runs and scrap met al , and even
cont rol the mechani cal properties of the finished castings
t hr ough modul at i on of t hermal gradients and solidification
rates.
Whereas the f'mite difference met hod has been used by a
number of researchers, 4' s and in many appl i cat i ons uses less
comput er time t han finite el ement s, it has the severe
disadvantage of being very unwi el dy when it comes t o
compl ex geometries such as those t ypi cal l y f ound in
casting. It is shown here t hat a t wo-di mensi onal finite
el ement program can give excel l ent results for a t apered
slab sand casting, even wi t h a fairly coarse mesh.
Concern has been voiced in some quart ers about the
effort t hat is wasted by model l i ng the t emper at ur e field in
the sand f or m .6 The aut hors, however, f ound it adequat e
t o use a single layer of quadrat i c el ement s in the sand. I f
an i mpl i ci t -expl i ci t f or mul at i on is used wi t h an appropri at e
solver, and the sand el ement s t aken as explicit, substantial
savings in comput er time can be realized in compari son
wi t h a fully implicit scheme.
Ma t h e ma t i c a l f o r mu l a t i o n
The finite el ement f or mul at i on of the heat conduct i on
equat i on is well d o c u me n t e d ] ' a Basically, st art i ng wi t h the
conservat i on of energy equat i on in a field g2, assuming no
mass t ransport and wi t h t emper at ur e- dependent t hermal
propert i es:
d H.
V. ( KV0 ) = p - - 0 (1)
dO
wi t h Dirich]et and Neuman boundary conditions on Fl and
F: respectively:
O ( x ) = O(x)f (t ) on F l (2)
KO .ti + q + h(O - - 0,4) = 0 on 1" 2 (3)
Discretizing the spatial domai n by finite el ement s and
empl oyi ng t he Galerkin procedure, 9 the fol l owi ng syst em
of differential equat i ons is obt ai ned:
CO + KO = F (4)
where t ypi cal component s of the mat ri ces C and K and
the vect or F are defi ned by:
Cii = p - ~ N i N ] d a (5)
I2
Ki]= f V Nj . ( KV Ni ) d ~ + f hNi Ni dF 2 (6)
i2 F 2
F i = -- f ( q- - hO A) U i dr= (7)
F:
Here N i denot es the finite el ement shape f unct i on associa-
ted wi t h node i of the finite el ement mesh. Lat ent heat
evol ut i on is account ed for by the t erm dH/dO, and march-
0307-904X/85/03170-05/$03.00
170 Appl. Math. Modelling, 1985, Vol. 9, June 1985 Butterworth & Co. (Publishers) Ltd
i ng i n t i me is a c c o mp l i s h e d b y a t wo s t e p p r e d i c t o r -
c o r r e c t o r a l g o r i t h m, wh i c h is gi ven as f ol l ows :
Pr e di c t or
[ C ( O n ) + A t " Y K ( O n ) ] o n + l = [ C ( O n ) - - A t n ( 1 - - 7 )
x K( On) ] O n + At nF( O n) ( 8)
Co r r e c t o r
[C(0~,) + at%K(O~)] ." +~ = ~ p . l [ C ( 0 ~ , ) - At"(1 - - 7 )
x K(0~,)] 0" + at" F (O~) ( 9 )
whe r e
0~, = / 3 0 ? . * 1 + ( 1 - 13) O n ( 1 0 )
and
On+l = On+l ( 11)
i . e. t he c or r e c t i ve i t e r a t i o n begi ns wi t h t he p r e d i c t e d
t e mp e r a t u r e ve c t or . The s u p e r s c r i p t n r ef er s t o t he t i me -
s t e p n u mb e r a nd p is t he n u mb e r o f c or r e c t i ve i t e r a t i ons .
Wi t h 3' = 13 = 1/ 2, one ha s an u n c o n d i t i o n a l l y s t abl e Cr a n k -
Ni c ol s on s c h e me wh i c h is s e c o n d - o r d e r a c c ur a t e i n t i me )
De p e n d i n g on t he n u mb e r o f i t e r a t i o n s r e qui r e d t o r e a c h
a s pe c i f i e d c onve r ge nc e l i mi t , t he t i me - s t e p ma y be in-
cr eas ed or de c r e a s e d.
Pr oc e e di ng a l ong fines si mi l ar t o t hos e o f Hughe s I l. ~2
a nd l i u , t3 t he i mp l i c i t - e x p l i c i t f o r mu l a t i o n f o r t he f i r st -
o r d e r s y s t e m gi ven i n e q u a t i o n ( 4) is as f ol l ows . The
e l e me n t s o f t he me s h ar e cl assi f i ed as expl i ci t (3' = 0) or
i mpl i c i t ( 0. 5 _~ 3' K 1. 0), e i t he r a pri ori or as a c o n s e q u e n c e
o f s o me cr i t er i a, a nd t he i r c o n t r i b u t i o n s t o t he gl obal K a nd
C ma t r i c e s ar e t r e a t e d a c c or di ngl y. I n t he case o f e xpl i c i t
e l e me n t s , f o r e x a mp l e , t he c a p a c i t a n c e ma t r i c e s mu s t be
l u mp e d . T o t hi s e nd, one wr i t es :
K = K I + K E ( 1 2 )
C = CI + CE ( 13)
F = F I + F E ( 14)
Cons i der e q u a t i o n ( 4) as i t appl i es t o a pa r t i c ul a r el e-
me n t . Ta ki ng V = 0 and -On+l as an i n t e r me d i a t e v e c t o r o f
n o d a l t e mp e r a t u r e s , ba s e d u p o n t i me l evel n, one can wr i t e:
CV n+l + KI On+l + KE ~n+l = F n+l ( 15)
~n+~ = 0 n + &t" Vn( l _ 7) ( 1 6 )
O n+l = 0 n +l + At "Vn+13" ( 17)
or r e wr i t i ng e q u a t i o n ( 17) :
v " * ~ = ( 0 " 1 - ~ " + ~ ) / A t " 7 ( 1 8 ) "=
Su b s t i t u t i n g ( 1 8 ) i n t o ( 15) gives:
C(On+ 1 _ ~n+ 1) + At n TKl On + 1 + A t " T KE ~ n + 1 ~_
= A t " T F n+l ( 19) "~
o
a nd r ear r angi ng:
x2_
[ C + A t " T K I ] O n + 1 = [ A t n T ( F n * 1 _ K e ~ n + l )
+ c # " + ~1 ( 2 o )
I f t he e l e me n t is e xpl i c i t , i . e. 7 = 0, t h e n ( 16) b e c o me s :
~n +l =On + A t n v n ( 21) F i g u r e l
b u t usi ng t he f a c t t h a t :
CV n + KO n = F n ( 22)
one sees t h a t :
v" = c- ' [F " - K 0 " ] ( 2 3 )
a nd:
c ~ " ' = c o " + Lxt " I F " - K O" ] (24)
Thi s is e x a c t l y t he same as t he r esul t t h a t w o u l d be pr o-
duced i f t he p r e d i c t o r ( 8 ) was used w i t h 7 = 0 t o gi ve
On+ 1 F u r t h e r , w i t h 7 = 0 i n ( 20) : ,
co " *1 = c ~ "*1 = c o" + at" [F " - K O" ] ( 2 5 )
whe r e n o w C, K a nd F ar e e va l ua t e d a t t he ne w t e mp e r a -
t ur e O h = ~ n * l + (1 - - 13) 0 n. Agai n, t he s a me r es ul t
oc c ur s i f t he c o r r e c t o r ( 9) is used I n t he f ul l y i mpl i ci t
case, i t c a n be s h o wn t h a t t he a l gor i t hm gi ven i n e q u a t i o n s
( 1 5 ) - ( 2 0 ) c a n be i mp l e me n t e d wi t h t he p r e d i c t o r - c o r r e c -
t o r s c h e me wi t h 7 = 1. I t is t h e r e f o r e ne c e s s a r y o n l y t o
s pe c i f y t he a p p r o p r i a t e val ue o f 3' f or e a c h e l e me n t a nd t he
r es ul t i ng gl obal l i near s y s t e m:
KEFFOn+ 1 ___FEFF ( 26)
wi l l have t he des i r ed pr ope r t i e s The e xpl i c i t e l e me n t s wi l l
c o n t r i b u t e t e r ms o n l y t o t he di agonal o f t he ma t r i x KEFF.
Thi s s t r u c t u r e ma y be mo s t f ul l y e x p l o i t e d wi t h an act i ve
c o l u mn pr of ' de s ol ver , H wh i c h onl y car r i es o u t t he Gaus s i an
e l i mi n a t i o n o n t hos e p a r t s o f t he ma t r i x whe r e of f - di a gona l
t e r ms oc c ur . Th u s , wi t h ma n y e xpl i c i t e l e me nt s , a con-
s i der abl e r e d u c t i o n i n s ol ut i on t i me ma y be r eal i zed.
E x p e r i m e n t a l a n d n u m e r i c a l r e s u l t s
A t a p e r e d sl ab o f a l u mi n i u m b r o n z e was cas t i n a resi n
b o n d e d si l i ca s and mo u l d . Th e r mo c o u p l e s wer e pl a c e d
d o wn t he cent r e- l i ne o f t he c a vi t y a nd t he t i me t o r e a c h t he
sol i dus t e mp e r a t u r e a f t e r p o u r was p l o t t e d as a f u n c t i o n o f
pos i t i on ( Fi gure 1) . Thi s e x p e r i me n t a l wo r k wa s c o n d u c t e d
a t t he Br i t i sh No n - Fe r r o u s Met al s Te c h n o l o g y Ce nt r e ,
Want age, UK.
The t e mp e r a t u r e - d e p e n d e n t t h e r ma l p r o p e r t i e s o f t he
me t a l wer e f o u n d f r o m r e f e r e nc e 14, a nd ar e s hown in
Tabl e 1. The l a t e n t h e a t was c a l c ul a t e d f r o m t hos e o f t he
c o n s t i t u e n t p u r e me t a l s b y a we i ght e d average The
AIBz t aper ed slab
9 0 - Numerical resul ts using l ow sand conducti vtti es
8 0 . . . . Numeri cal resul t s using high send conducti vi ti es
Experi ment al r esul t s
70 /
60 /
. / "
5(3 . /
s
40
30 ~ ' ~
20 ~ ' ~ _
1(3
0 I I I I I I I l I I I I
0 100 200 300 400 500 600
Di stance f r om end of casting ( mm)
Experimental and numeri cal results
A p p l . M a t h . Mo d e l l i n g , 1 9 8 5 , V o l . 9 , June 171
Tabl e I Mat er i al pr oper t i es f or a l u mi n i u m- b r o n z e
Composi ti on:
Copper 80. 5%
Al u mi n i u m 9. 5%
I ron 4. 5%
Nickel 5. 5%
Freezing Range: 1 0 8 0 - 1 0 5 0 C
Lat ent Heat : 2. 37 X 10 s J/ kg ( 56. 7 cal / g)
Specific Heat : 452. 2 J/ kg C
Density: 7600 kg/ m ~
Co n d u c t i v i t y as a f u n c t i o n of t emper at ur e:
Temper at ur e ( C) k (J/s m C)
200 5 4 . 4 2
4 0 0 46. 05
6 0 0 43. 95
8 0 0 41. 86
1000 41. 86
1200 41. 86
Tabl e 2 Mat er i al pr oper t i es f or sand
Density: 1444. 7 k g/ m ~
Hi gh c o n d u c t i v i t y cur ve as a f u n c t i o n of t emper at ur e (C):
k ---- 0. 6606 - - 2. 084 X 10 -4 T + 7. 741 X 10 -~ T a J/s m C
L o w c o n d u c t i v i t y cur ve as a f u n c t i o n of t emper at ur e (C):
k = 0. 2828 - - 1. 681 X 10 - " T + 1. 352 X 10 -~ T = J/s m C
Specific heat as a f u n c t i o n of t emper at ur e:
Temper at ur e (C) Cp ( J/ kg C)
200 975. 7
400 1092. 9
600 1151. 5
800 1159. 9
1000 1176. 7
propert i es of the particular sand used coul d not be de-
t ermi ned, but reference 15 gives a range of t ypi cal values
(see Table 2). Numerical results were obt ai ned wi t h the
highest and lowest sand conduct i vi t y curves, whi ch
bracket ed the experi ment al solidification times as shown in
Figure 1.
The vertical cross-section of the moul d and casting was
enmeshed wi t h 56 quadrat i c i soparamet ri c el ement s (see
Figure 2). The ext ernal boundar y of the sand el ement s
was fLxed at 20C, wi t h the initial t emper at ur e in t he sand
t he same. The t op boundar y of the riser was hel d at 1156C
while t he riser sides were per f ect l y insulated. The initial
t emperat ure of the met al was t aken as 1156C t hr oughout ,
and the initial t emper at ur e at t he i nt erface bet ween met al
and sand was 1080C, whi ch is the liquidus t emperat ure.
A condi t i on of perfect conduct i on was assumed at the
i nt erface, i.e. no t hermal resistance. For want of bet t er
i nf or mat i on, the l at ent heat was assumed t o evolve linearly
over the freezi ng range. Because t he slab is relatively thin,
convect i on in t he mel t woul d not be significant except in
the riser, so no effect f r om convect i on was i ncl uded.
Fr om an initial value o f 1.0 s, t he time-step was doubl ed
i f onl y one corrective i t erat i on was requi red t o reach a
convergence t ol erance of 0.5C. Three or mor e i t erat i ons
woul d cause t he time-step t o be halved. Originally, 3' and/3
in equat i ons ( 8) - ( 10) were t aken as 0.5 for all the el ement s.
Figure 3 shows the hi st or y o f t he solidus (1050C) cont our s
at 90 s intervals for t he case when the highest sand con-
duct i vi t y curve was used. Even wi t h such a coarse mesh,
t he shape and progression o f sol i di fi cat i on cont our s is in
accor d wi t h physi cal expect at i ons.
A slab casting wi t hout t aper was also model l ed, wi t h all
ot her condi t i ons i dent i cal t o t he previ ous casting. Figure 4
depi ct s t he sol i di fi cat i on cont our hi st or y, again at 90 s
intervals. The fact t hat a large por t i on o f t he slab solidifies
in one time interval, unlike the even progressi on f ound wi t h
the t apered casting, suggests t hat there woul d be feedi ng
probl ems in this region, resulting in shrinkage por osi t y.
This is, of course, what occurs in pract i ce. I f mor e exact
i nf or mat i on about the relationship bet ween fract i on
solidified and t emper at ur e were available, it woul d be
possible t o make a more definitive st at ement about likely
areas of underfeedi ng.
Using t he i mpl i ci t -expl i ci t al gori t hm, t he sand el ement s
were t hen all t aken t o be explicit, leaving 3' = 0.5 f or t he
Fi gur e 2 Fi ni t e el ement mesh (sand el ement s shaded)
]
>
Figure 3 S o l i d i f i c a t i o n f r o n t h i s t o r y f o r AI Bz sl ab ( t a p e r e d 1 : 2 0 )
1 7 2 A p p l . Ma t h . Mo d e l l i n g , 1 9 8 5 , V o l . 9, J u n e
Figure 4 Solidification front history for untapered slab highest
sand conductivity
metal. When a frontal solver was used, there was no im-
provement in the cpu (central processing unit) time per
iteration, as this solver could not take advantage of the
changed structure of the global stiffness matrix. In fact, the
global mat ri x is never actually formed. The frontal solver
has the i mport ant features t hat it makes node numberi ng
arbitrary and it requires less core space. When an active
column profile solver was used, however, the solution time
was reduced by 75% from t hat of the frontal solver. This is
with a mesh where 65% of the elements are explicit. A good
portion of this reduction is due simply to the fact t hat the
prof'de solver is faster in general than the frontal solver.
When the profile solver is used with 3' = 0.5 for all ele-
ments, however, a reduction of 39% still results due to the
implicit--explicit algorithm alone.
Ca p a c i t a n c e ma t r i x l u mp i n g
As not ed above, the capacitance matrices of the explicit
elements must be lumped to give KEF F the desired struc-
ture. With linear elements, this presents no problem: the
terms of a row may be simply summed to the diagonal.
This will be referred to as ' st andard' lumping. If this
procedure is adopt ed with the 8-noded serendipity element,
however, ill-conditioning is introduced 16 which causes
severe stability problems and loss of accuracy. Hinton t7
and Donea Is proposed two different lumping schemes to
restore stability. In Hinton' s met hod, the total heat
capacity is preserved and the terms of the lumped mat ri x
are proportional to the diagonal terms of the consistent
matrix. Donea introduces a new set of weighting functions
with which to form the lumped capacitance matrix.
Both of these schemes were used with the tapered slab
probl em and did, in fact, improve the stability. The
accuracy was degraded in bot h cases, however, with the
Hinton met hod being slightly better. In order to regain the
accuracy of the consistefit mat ri x, a modified predi ct or-
corrector algorithm was adopt ed for explicit elements:
Predictor
T n + l = [CD-- At K] T n
Co,
Corrector
CDT n+l = [CD-C] Tn+t + [C--ArK] T n
=,
CD is the capacitance matrix diagonalized by the Hinton
met hod. The effect of the consistent mat ri x is introduced
in the correct or step.
With the tapered slab probl em, when the convergence
tolerance was taken as 4.0C, this scheme converged to
within 1.0C of the consistent results, an error of less than
0.1%. What is more, it required fewer steps and iterations
to reach a given point in time. This added to the comput er
time savings due to the implicit-explicit algorithm alone.
Nine-noded Lagrangian elements were then used with
the same probl em. Standard and Hinton lumping, when
applied with the unmodified time-stepping algorithm, gave
nearly identical accuracy, with an error of less than 0.1%
when compared with the consistent results. The modified
predi ct or-correct or gave a slight i mprovement in accuracy,
but at the cost of more time-steps, iterations, and mat ri x
assembly time. Since standard lumping is somewhat faster
than Hi nt on' s met hod, it is most advantageous when
Lagrangian elements are used. In fact, even though a mesh
with Lagrangian elements requires solution for more
degrees-of-freedom, the total comput er time is less than
for 8-noded elements with the modified predi ct or-correct or
scheme described above, because fewer iterations are
required to obtain comparable accuracy.
Concl us i ons
In transient field problems involving mixed media with
widely different properties, such as metal casting in sand, a
substantial reduction in comput er time may be obtained
with an imphcit-explicit algorithm coupled with an active
column profile solver. When 8-noded serendipity elements
are used, a modified predi ct or-correct or scheme will
preserve accuracy. With 9-noded Lagrangian elements, only
standard lumping is required for good results.
No me n c l a t u r e
C capacitance mat ri x
Co diagonalized capacitance matrix
F right-hand side vector
h convective heat transfer coefficient
H enthalpy
K conductivity
n time-step
t~ unit outward normal to surface
p . mmber of corrective iterations
q specified heat flux
t time
x spatial coordinates
13 weighting factor for determining t emperat ure at which
to evaluate matrices
3' weighting fact or in two-level time-stepping scheme
F~ boundary with Dirichlet condition
F2 boundary with Neuman condition
p density
0 t emperat ure
intermediate t emperat ure
Appl. Math. Modelling, 1985, Vol. 9, June 173
0 . pr e di c t e d t e mp e r a t u r e
0,4 a mbi e nt t e mp e r a t u r e
s peci f i ed t e mp e r a t u r e
~2 spat i al d o ma i n
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174 Appl . Math. Modelling, 1985, Vol . 9, June