Professional Documents
Culture Documents
DISSERTATION
By
Nadiah Ahmad
2015
Dissertation Committee:
i
Copyright by
Nadiah Ahmad
2015
ii
Abstract
One of the design aspects that continues to create a challenge for casting
designers is the optimum design of casting feeders (risers). As liquid metal solidifies, the
metal shrinks and forms cavities inside the casting. In order to avoid shrinkage cavities,
risers are added to the casting shape to supply additional molten metal when shrinkage
occurs during solidification. The shrinkage cavities in the casting are compensated by
controlling the cooling rate to promote directional solidification. This control can be
achieved by designing the casting such that the cooling begins at the sections that are
farthest away from the risers and ends at the risers. Therefore, the risers will solidify last
and feed the casting with the molten metal. As a result, the shrinkage cavities formed
during solidification are in the risers which are later removed from the casting.
validating the casting designs which are very costly due to expensive simulation
processes or manual trials and errors on actual casting processes, this study investigates
more efficient methods that will help casting designers utilize their casting experiences
systematically to develop good initial casting designs. The objective is to reduce the
casting design method iterations; therefore, reducing the cost involved in that design
ii
processes. The aim of this research aims at finding a method that can help casting
designers design effective risers used in sand casting process of aluminum-silicon alloys
liquid metal at the early stage of casting solidification, when heat transfer and
convective fluid flow are taken into account in the solidification simulation. The
mathematical model of casting solidification was solved using the finite volume method
(FVM). This study focuses to improve our understanding of the feeding behavior in
aluminum-silicon alloys and the effective feeding by considering the pressure gradient
distribution of the molten metal at casting dendrite coherency point. For this study, we
will identify the relationship between feeding efficiency, shrinkage behavior and how
the change in riser size affects the pressure gradient in the casting. This understanding
iii
Acknowledgments
All praises and thanks to Allah, the Almighty for His blessings that have allowed
Special gratitude and profound appreciation to my advisor, Dr. Jerald Brevick for
throughout my research work. I would also like to express my gratitude and great
appreciation to my dissertation committee members, Dr. Theodore Allen and Dr. Jose
Castro for their advices, reviews and recommendations in helping me progressing well
Teknikal Malaysia Melaka and The Ministry of Education for providing scholarship
Finally, I am deeply grateful to my spouse, Radin Zaid Radin Umar and my family
for their continuous supports and encouragements during my study. Special thanks as
well for everyone who had helped me in any ways during my reseach conduct.
iv
Vita
Fields of Study
Abstract ................................................................................................................................ii
Acknowledgments...............................................................................................................iv
Vita .......................................................................................................................................v
vi
2.4 Summary ............................................................................................................. 27
Chapter 4: The Analysis of the Casting Solidification Behavior Using Convective Fluid
Flow ................................................................................................................................... 49
vii
4.3 Flow Analysis of the Casting Models ................................................................... 59
4.5 Evaluation of Feeding Efficiency Using Convective Fluid Flow Analysis ............. 79
4.6 Sensitivity Analysis of the Constant C Value in the Solidification Simulation. .... 88
viii
List of Tables
Table 4.5. Minimum and maximum velocities of the castings at coherency. .................. 68
Table 4.6. The modulus difference between the casting and riser and casting yield for
each model........................................................................................................................ 79
Table 4.7. The depreciation rate of the pressure gradient after coherency. ................... 87
Table 4.8. The depreciation rate of the pressure gradient after coherency with (a)
Table 4.12. The modulus difference between the casting and riser and the casting yield
Table 4.13. The depreciation rate of the pressure gradient after coherency. ................. 96
ix
List of Figures
Figure 1.1. Typical terminologies in sand casting (“Sand casting”, 2006). ......................... 3
Figure 1.2. Types of metal contractions in metal casting (Campbell, 2004 ) ..................... 5
Figure 2.1. Illustration of feeding mechanism during solidification of alloy (adapted from
Figure 4.3. Casting of (a) Model 1, (b) Model 2, (c) Model 3 and (d) Model 4. ................ 58
Figure 4.4. Velocity fields of Model 1 at (a) 10 s, (b) 20 s and (c) 31 s. ............................ 60
x
Figure 4.10. Velocity fields of Model 4 at (a) 30 s and (c) 60 s. ........................................ 66
Figure 4.11. Velocity fields at casting coherency for (a) Model 1 and (b) Model 2. ........ 69
Figure 4.12. Velocity fields at casting coherency for (a) Model 3 and (b) Model 4. ........ 70
Figure 4.14. Scaled velocity vectors when the casting sections reached coherency. ...... 73
Figure 4.15. Pressure distribution of Model 1 at (a) 1 s, (b) 5 s, (c) 10 s and (d) 30 s time
intervals............................................................................................................................. 76
Figure 4.16. Pressure gradient profiles of Model 1 at (a) 5 s, (b) 10 s, (c) 20 s and (d) 30 s.
........................................................................................................................................... 78
Figure 4.17. Pressure gradient distributions with liquidus and coherency temperature
isotherms when all of area inside the casting sections had reached coherency
temperature; (a) Model 1, (b) Model 2, (c) Model 3 and (d) Model 4. ............................ 83
Figure 4.18. Plot of pressure gradient over time at a point between riser and casting. . 84
Figure 4.19. Close-up plot of pressure gradient as it depreciated over time to zero at a
Figure 4.20. Regression applied on the pressure gradient over time; (a) Model 3and (b)
Model 4 ............................................................................................................................. 86
Figure 4.21. Plot of pressure gradient over time at a point between riser and casting
Figure 4.22. Close-up plot of pressure gradient as it depreciated over time to zero at a
point between riser and casting with (a) constant C=103and (b) constant C = 107. ........ 91
xi
Figure 4.23. Pressure gradient distribution when all of the casting section reached
coherency for (a) Model 1, (b) Model 2, and (d) Model 3. ............................................... 97
Figure 4.24. Plot of pressure gradient over time at a point between riser and casting. . 98
Figure 4.25. Close-up plot of pressure gradient as it depreciated over time to zero at a
Figure 4.26. Regression applied on the pressure gradient over time; (a) Model 2 and (b)
Figure 4.27. (a) Model 2 and (b) Model 3 AlSI7Mg castings. .......................................... 102
Figure 4.29. Framework for riser design and optimization. ........................................... 104
xii
Chapter 1
Introduction
casting, such as shrinkage defects, has been a subject of active research in industry and
academia. One of the design aspects that remains a challenge for casting designers is
the efficient design of casting risers. The purpose of this chapter is to give an overview
about metal casting and its challenges, as well as the objectives of this study pertaining
Metal casting is among the oldest methods of shaping materials, dating back to
approximately 4000 B.C when copper was cast for making various objects. The metal
casting process involves pouring or injecting molten metal into a mold cavity, which is in
the shape of the part to be manufactured. The molten metal is then allowed to cool and
solidify, before the metal can be removed from the mold. Due to its versatility and
1
economic nature, metal casting has been one of the important near net-shape
manufacturing technologies.
To date, there have been several casting techniques developed, each with its own
characteristics and applications. The traditional method of metal casting is the sand
casting. This method is still important, as more than 70% of metal casting is performed
using sand casting (Degarmo et al., 2003). Sand casting, which uses sand as the mold
material, is also the least expensive method as compared to other casting techniques.
In sand casting processes, a pattern is used to form a mold cavity in the sand
mixture contained in a flask (See figure 1.1). The pattern is usually made of wood, foam,
plastic, wax or metal; and the sand is packed around the pattern to make the mold. For
a simple casting design, a single solid pattern is use. As for a more complex design, a
split pattern is used which consists of the upper part, called cope and the lower part,
called drag. The core is an insert placed in the mold to create holes or interior surface of
the casting. Figure 1.1 shows an example of a pattern shape and the terminologies used
in sand casting. As molten metal is poured into the pouring cup, it will travel through a
gating system which control the flow of the metal, down the sprue. A runner is a
channel that allows the molten metal to flow into the casting mold cavity. The molten
metal will first reach the gate that acts as inlet into the mold cavity.
2
The sand casting method that uses a polystyrene foam to make the pattern is
since the foam will evaporate as the molten metal is poured into the foam-filled mold.
The advantages of LFC method are that, it requires no cores and it only requires a single
solid pattern as the foam is easy to manipulate even for complex geometries. The LFC
method differs from the conventional sand casting in that, it uses unbonded dry sand
for molding, making it easier to maintain than the bonded sand molding; and eliminates
the damaging effect of the steam from the bonded sand. LFC method has gained its
popularity within the last four decades especially in making the aluminum-based
3
When a part design is received from a client or design engineer, the tool builder
will start designing the sand casting tooling such as pattern, cores and etc. Designing
and building casting tooling requires a deep knowledge in casting processes and foundry
operations. There are many considerations that need to be taken into account. These
considerations include on how to achieve the specified shape of the casting, how to flow
the molten metal and feed during solidification of the metal, as well as the shrinkage of
Figure 1.2 displays three types of contractions or shrinkage that occur in metal
casting. Liquid contraction occurs as the liquid metal temperature decrease from the
pouring temperature to liquidus temperature which signifies the start of the metal
solidification. The solidification contraction begins at the liquidus temperature until the
metal reaches solidus temperature at which the metal solidification ends. As the metal
4
Figure 1.2. Types of metal contractions in metal casting (Campbell, 2004 )
In metal casting, one primary issue that arises is the formation of shrinkage
defects during solidification. As liquid metal solidifies, the metal shrinks and forms
cavities inside the casting. The cavities are normally formed at the last area where the
liquid melt solidifies. When designing a casting, it is important to design the casting
5
system that allows feed metal to compensate for the shrinkage of the casting during its
solidification.
Shrinkage defects can be classfied into two types: open shrinkage defects and
closed shrinkage defects. Open shrinkage defects that are exposed to the atmosphere,
are caused by metal contraction while cooling in liquid state and during solidification.
Closed shrinkage defects occur inside the casting and are also called porosities. The
region. They can be in the form of macroporosities and microporosities. Figure 1.3
illustrates the classification of the various types of shrinkage defects explained above.
employed along with chills or paddings, if necessary. Risers, which play a key role in
feeding system, are added to the casting shapes to supply additional metal when
shrinkage occurs during solidification. Uninterrupted flow of molten metal to feed the
solidifying regions can produce sound castings. The shrinkage in the casting is
(Kalpakjian, 1995). This control can be achieved by the mold and casting design such
that the cooling begins at the sections that are furthest away from the risers and end at
the risers. Therefore, the risers will solidify last and feed the molten metal to the region
with developing casting cavities. As a result, the shrinkage cavities formed during
solidification are in the risers which later are cut off from the casting (Johns, 1987).
6
Figure 1.3. Classification of shrinkage defects (Stefanescu, 2005).
In order to prevent shrinkage defects, there have been studies in literatures for
effective feeding. These studies also involve the determination of feeding distance of a
riser. Feeding distance indicates how far in a casting a riser can supply compensating
liquid melt. Effective risers are able to provide enough continuous feed flow into the
castings without causing waste in material due to their excessive sizes. If the risers are
too small, they will not be able to provide uninterrupted feed flow into the castings. The
design of effective risers is very important to reduce the production cost, especially for
low volume production, since repetitive casting trials will increase the casting cost. This
cost includes the metal cost and the removal cost of the risers. Riser effectiveness can
be influenced by its dimension, shape, location on casting, and connection type to the
casting (Lewis, 1983). The designers commonly determine the riser designs based on
7
knowledge and experiences in casting gained through trial-and-error procedures and
There are also several software packages that can simulate and evaluate the
best casting results. Therefore, time and cost spent on the design processes can be
reduced as compared to when they are done manually. This software can predict the
filling and solidification processes in order to identify potential defects that could occur
in the casting (Tan et al., 1998). The designers will therefore, redesign and reevaluate
the casting designs. Even though current technology allows the identification of the
potential shrinkage areas such as through the simulation of the hot spot formation,
there is still difficulty in assuring that the riser placements will provide uninterrupted
feeding flows, and will reach the targeted hot spot locations due to unknown limited
feeding distance. Consequently, the design engineer can still spend considerable time to
develop a satisfactory design. The aim of this research is therefore to address this issue,
and find design methods that can assist casting engineers in designing good castings
Since casting simulation has become an important tool in the design of castings,
there is need of more efficient methods that exploit the results from the simulation.
The objective of this study is to use the heat transfer and convective fluid flow
simulation of casting solidification to evaluate the design of the risers. Most of previous
8
research related to the design of risers has only utilized the heat transfer models. The
current study seeks to show the advantages and importance of convective fluid flow
model in providing solutions for designing effective risers. This is based on the
hypothesis that the numerical heat transfer and convective fluid flow simulation results
together can provide a more accurate prediction of riser effectiveness. Simulating the
convective fluid flow has been known to be computationally expensive. For that reason,
current study also attemps to investigate if the results at the early stage of the
mathematical models of casting solidification will be solved using the finite volume
method (FVM).
Feeding has been known to take place in the direction of the maximum
temperature gradient along the interface between the solid and liquid metal during
solidification (Sutaria and Ravi, 2012). In this study, we aim to use the simulation of
effectiveness using the analysis of pressure distribution inside the casting; as we know
that the liquid flows in the path of positive pressure gradient (Campbell, 2004).
We intend that this study will improve our understanding of the feeding behavior
in alloys for effective feeding system design. For this study, we will discover the
relationship between the pressure distribution, shrinkage behavior and how the change
in riser size affects the pressure distribution, by taking into account the development of
dendrite coherency during the casting solidification. This understanding will be used to
9
improve the design method of effective feeding. The experimental study for validation
was conducted using the LFC sand casting process for aluminum-silicon alloys.
Chapter 2 of this thesis will describe the literature review related to this study. An
overview related to riser calculation methods and studies pertaining to feeding distance
will be presented in this chapter. Later, the chapter provides an overview of studies on
casting optimization methods available in the literature. This chapter will also cover the
Chapter 3 contains the description of the casting solidification models used in this
study. The governing conservation equations and the sources terms used are mentioned
in this chapter. The finite volume method used to solve the discretized equations is also
and was implemented in OpenFOAM software. Chapter 4 presents the analysis of the
casting solidification simulation. The analysis of the convective fluid flow and pressure
gradient is described for AlSi9Cu, using a “step” casting design. A method to evaluate
the effectiveness of riser is then explained. Further application to AlSi7Mg alloys is also
research.
10
Chapter 2
Literature Review
There are various factors that influence the failure of risers in feeding during
solidification to make sound castings. Among the main causes are the riser sizes being
too small in volume or too low in height, improper riser locations and isolated hotspots
in the castings which are not connected to the riser feeding channels. In addition, the
failure is caused by the feeding channels being too narrow or too far from the casting
sections as influenced by the shapes and sizes of the castings (Zhou, 2005). The
following sections review some of the techniques available in the literature to design
effective risers which act as additional metal reservoirs to compensate the metal
shrinkage in order to produce sound castings or castings that are free from shrinkage
defects.
There has been research that developed and documented casting design
principles, guidelines and simple rules (Campbell, 1991-2004; Bralla, 1998; Upadhya and
Paul, 2005). These guidelines and rules are used by engineers to design good castings
11
which include series of decisions made to achieve defect-free castings at low cost. The
decision making includes the riser designs (number, size, shape, and location), the
interface conditions, and mold conditions. Ransing and Sood (2005) published a
two streams of research exist in the work of optimization of casting process. They are
riser design optimization, the objective is to create strategies to determine shape and
casting yield. Casting yield is the ratio of the casting volume to the volume of both the
There are two main factors that determine the requirements for risers in order
to obtain a sound casting. The first one is the thermal properties which require that the
risers must solidify after the casting has solidified. The second factor is the solidification
characteristics that the risers must be able to provide enough feed metal to avoid
shrinkage cavity or porosity being formed during the solidification (Flinn, 1963;
Merchant, 1959). The most common rule used to evaluate riser design is based on the
Chvorinov’s rule which gives the solidification time for any mass of molten metal. The
earliest study by Chvorinov (1940) stated that the time for the metal to remain in a
liquid form is proportional to the squared of the ratio of the metal volume (V) to its
12
surface area (A). According to Chvorinov’s rule, the solidification time of the riser must
(2.1)
represent the riser and casting respectively. Gaindhar et al. (1988) used nonlinear
optimization to find the optimum dimension, i.e., the riser volume for various shapes of
problem.
Chvorinov’s rule. Caine based his method on indirect use of V/A calculation. Caine
established charts based on empirical studies that relate the V/A ratio of casting to V/A
ratio of riser. From the chart, the limit for shrinkage and soundness for various casting
shapes and feeding methods can be obtained. The following is the relationship found by
Caine (1952):
(2.2)
where
13
solidification rate relative measure
Caine method works for simple and moderately complex shapes. This method
later was simplified by Bishop et al. (1955) through the use of a shape factor (SF). This
shape factor replaces the tedious calculation of the freezing ratio in the Caine’s curve.
The study showed that the V/A ratio can simply be replaced with a simple relationship
between the length (L), width (W) and thickness (H). This relationship is SF= (L+W)/H.
The Bishop method was proven in practice to provide approximately similar riser
dimensions for simple shapes and also was demonstrated to more complex shapes
(Flinn, 1963). Both Caine and Bishop et al. relationships however are only valid when the
ratio of the riser’s height to its diameter falls between 0.5 and 1 and were studied on
steel alloy.
Merchant (1959) did further analysis on the relationship studied in Caine and
(2.3)
14
where m and c ‘ are constants for slope and intercept respectively. For steel, these
Ruddle as cited in (Lewis, 1983) utilized the Chvorinov relationship and defined a
(2.4)
Therefore, as the modulus increases, the time to solidify also increases. Through
empirical study, he showed that feed metal will be sufficient if the modulus of the riser
is greater than that of the casting by twenty percent. This modulus principle is used to
check any given dimension of riser if it meets the basic requirements. It however, does
not give optimal dimension but requires various possible dimensions to be validated.
Many optimization techniques of risers in literature are based on modulus principle such
as seen in Ravi (2009), Zhao and Jing (2003) and Jacob et al. (2004).
So far the use of modulus principle has a limitation in that, it only accounts for
the solidification time requirement which is not sufficient to ensure sound castings. In
addition, casting shapes having the same modulus had been shown to have different
solidification characteristics (Hansen and Sahm, 1988). Casting geometries can affect
thermal gradients inside the castings. Even changing the process parameters such as the
mold material and pouring temperature can show unpredictable results on the
solidification time. Besides, solidification mode also differs with alloys. Aluminum alloys
15
for example, are less likely to form a sturdy solid outer shell especially for alloys having
wide freezing range and are more quickly filled with dendrites (Sigworth and Wang,
1993). Finding reliable relationship between process parameters and casting shapes is
consequently difficult.
There are studies that utilize feeding distance as a measure to evaluate how well
well a riser can feed the casting during the solidification (“feedability”). Feeding
distance (FD) is the maximum distance that a riser can feed a metal such that, within
this distance the casting section is relatively free of shrinkage defect (SFSA, 2001). The
distance from the edge of the riser to the farthest point in the casting section that the
riser feeds, give the measure for the feeding distance. The most detailed work on
feeding distance was first done by Naval Research Labaratory on steel castings (Bishop
et al.,1950-51). The rules developed for feeding distance are based on the empirical
affects the cooling rate of the section (SFSA, 2001). Consequently, the feeding distances
established for simple shapes (plate, bar and cylinder) are commonly a function of
casting section thickness. The shape of the casting will also influence the temperature
gradient. This temperature change per unit length during solidification controls the
feeding path of the feed metal and therefore, influences the feeding distance of the
casting. The use of chill added on the casting increases the temperature gradient which
as a result, increases the feeding distance. On that accounts, different shapes produce
16
different feeding distances. These studies were based on the theory that when the
solidification gradient toward the end of the freezing drops below some minimum
value, shrinkage cavities would form in that location of the casting (Ou et al., 2005).
More recent studies on feeding distance are from Ou et. al on alloy steel and
more extensive literature review on feeding distance can be found in the their work (Ou
et al,2002-05). Ou et al. developed the feeding rules that are less conservative than the
rules developed by previous studies. The rules were developed using numerical heat
transfer simulations for both high and low alloy steel grades. In their studies, the
feeding distance was determined after taking into account factors that can affect
feeding distance such as sand mold material, alloy composition, superheat and the use
(2.5)
Nonetheless, the above equation is only accurate for up to W/H=15. Beyond that
ratio, FD/H ratio will have a constant value of 9.0. Most studies in feeding distance
There has also been considerable numerical research in optimizing the casting
process design. However, the optimization particularly in the field of riser design, has
received less attention in spite of its significance (Campbell, 1991). Most of these works
obtain the optimal riser design, i.e., the riser design that resulted in a sound casting,
17
systematically through numerical modeling and simulation. Hence, the determination of
the last region to solidify, called hotspot, and the ability of the riser to feed this region
laid the foundation for the traditional riser design techniques. In designing the riser, the
hotspot is required to be in the riser, in order to ensure the riser remains molten to
quantify and predict the behavior of the solidifying metal. The results of the simulation
such as the temperature distribution throughout the casting, will be used to facilitate
feeding evaluation and optimization including the prediction of the shrinkage locations.
One of the advantages of numerical modeling is that, it allows how the changing of the
timely more expensive but usually results in a more accurate prediction of solidification
the solidification problem. Consequently, its application can encompass more practical
problems as compared to the exact mathematical analysis which only applicable to the
(Morthland et al., 1995; Tortorelli et al., 1994). The riser design was formulated as a
shape optimization problem. The designer provides the initial design and the program
will evaluate the design to supply information to the numerical optimization. Lewis
(1983) formulated the problem with the objective to minimize the cost associated with
18
the riser design by selecting the best design from various sets of risers and chills design
combinations provided by the casting engineer. For each combination chosen, the
solve the problem and solidification simulation to evaluate the chosen design.
Nevertheless, the method required extensive amount of CPU time in order to gain
Morthland et al. (1995) and Tortorelli et al. (1994) used gradient based
minimization method with sensitivity analysis for the solidification parameters. The
objective function is formulated to be the riser volume. While the previous works
depend on the initial riser design from the engineer, Tavakoli and Davami (2008)
developed a method that automate the riser design. In this method, the designer only
provides the casting geometry without a riser, as an input. The riser design will be
initialized by the program and optimized using shape and topology optimization
method. This method designs the biggest riser as its initial design and presented the
smallest ones during its iterations. This method however, does not work well when the
casting requires multiple risers with similar size or for more complex castings.
constrained topology optimization and is solved with the finite element analysis. In
(Ransing and Sood, 2005) they added finite difference analysis of the solidification
19
efficient, easy to implement and define the initial design. In (Tavakoli and Davami,
method using a riser growth technique, in which the dimension of the riser iteratively
There has been limited integrated CAD system developed for designing risers.
Liao et al. (2011) integrated 3D models to simulate castings and design risers with the
use of CAD system. The authors used perimetrischen quotient model that is based on
modulus method to determine the dimension of the risers. The method was verified on
a simple casting design and showed good casting results. However, the performance of
Jian and Tao (2003) developed an integrated CAD/CAE system for casting process
using concurrent engineering method that uses input from CAD module to design the
casting system. The riser design is determined using the modulus method. The casting
geometry is split into segments and for each segment, the riser modulus and riser neck
modulus must be equal to the transfer modulus. Jacob et al. (2004) used CAD and
genetic algorithm for determining the riser design. CAD platform is used to divide
casting into segments and calculate the casting modulus. The inputs were feeded into
the genetic algorithm which finds the riser dimensions that optimize the yield for each
segment.
factors in designing the casting process (Ravi, 2008). Ravi (2009) developed computer-
20
aided casting design and simulation package called AutoCast that can help design the
riser dimensions based on the modulus principle after the user has determined the
location of the risers. Kor etc. (2009) integrated numerical optimization technique with a
solve multi-objective optimization problem for finding optimum gating and riser design.
Baha’l (2004) studied the use of simulation package called FLUENT that is based on
computational fluid dynamic in designing good risers. Various designs were simulated
and the solidification simulation results provide input for the riser design.
There are two common categories of methods for solving the solidification
problem involving convection. The first one is based on a multi-phase model while the
second group is based on a single-phase approach or the mixture model. In the multi-
phase or multi-domain approach, the momentum and energy equations are solved
position that defines the domain regions is required at each time iteration. See review in
Samarskii (1993).
momentum and energy equations are solved for the entire physical domain.
Consequently, the interface position is not explicitly computed and the energy balance
21
media formulation. This model is widely used for phase-change problem but is usually
used when the thermophysical properties of different domains are assumed equal
the dependent variable for the energy equation instead of the temperature. The
In molten alloy or impure substance, the freezing takes place over a range of
range produces a mushy region that must be known its transport properties in
modeling. Voller and Prakash (1987) were the first to develop enthalpy-porosity models
that deal with the mushy region. The mushy region in the molten metal is simulated by
using the Darcy’s source term in the momentum equation. This approach uses the
assumption that the thermal properties are constant with temperature and phase. In
Voller et al. (1989), a set of assumptions are identified that allow this approach
applicable to a binary alloy system. The release of the latent heat during the phase
change is accounted for using the source term in the energy equation.
takes into account, the different properties of thermophysical data related to each
phase or domain present in the melt. Vakhrushev (2010) includes the turbulence effect
into the model through the use of effective viscosity and effective conductivity in the
22
There are studies that solve the temperature instead of the total enthalpy in the
and uses a specific way of handling the heat coefficient or the source term in the energy
equations. See also Beckermann and Viskanta (1988) and Voller and Prakash (1989).
Zeng and Faghri (1994) used this method to simulate the mushy region by combining an
effective heat coefficient and heat source term handling in the energy equation to
represent the evolution of the latent heat of fusion during the phase change.
There are three typical numerical methods for solving the solidification problem
involving phase transformation from liquid to solid. There are fixed grid, variable grid
and transformed grid methods (Hong, 2004). In the fixed grid method, the grids of the
computational domain are uniform and orthogonal. The grids also remain unchanged
throughout the calculation iterations. The evolution of the latent heat is incorporated
through a suitable source term in the governing equation. The location of the moving
interface between solid and liquid is not explicitly known but can be interpolated
On the other hand, for the variable grid method, one of the grids for the space
and time domains is not fixed but to be determined so that the moving interface always
remains at a grid point. This method requires energy balance equation at the interface
to account for the release of the latent heat of fusion and therefore the interface
position can directly be known. The front tracking method is one such technique that is
23
The transformed grid method is an adaptive grid method that can be used for
problems with complex geometries, in which the irregular region is mapped into regular
region in the computational domain. The grids are generated for every time iteration
causing a considerable use of the computational time. Fixed grid method is among the
alloys due to the occurrence of mushy zone, which causes other methods used to solve
a single discreet phase change are not applicable. Current study employed a fixed frid
There are five distinct feeding mechanisms exist during alloy solidification as
suggested by Campbell (1969) and further rheologically explained by Gourlay and Dahle
(2005). As solidification begins simultaneously in the castings and risers, the liquid flows
from the risers to feed the contraction in the castings. The feeding flow at the beginning
of the solidification is called liquid feeding through viscous flow mechanism. The driving
forces involved in the liquid feeding are ones due to the volume change as a result of
However, the pressure difference during the liquid feeding is often considered negligible
Shrinkage induced flow occurs when the nuclei started to form in the melt and
this flow is called mass feeding. Mass feeding dominates from the liquidus temperature,
to coherency temperature during which the material behaves as liquid or slurry solid
24
grains. The material exerts little resistance to feeding during this stage as the dendrites
are independent and the pressure difference required for mass feeding is also small.
is well packed.
The next stage of feeding is termed interdendritic feeding during which winding
channels have formed between dendrites after the dendrites impose on one another.
The temperature at which this dendrite mesh formed is termed coherency temperature,
. The size and morphology of dendrites can influence . Materials that develop
larger grains or irregular shapes tend to reach coherency earlier. At this point the
Some liquid can flow through these channels to feed the shrinkage occurred towards
At solid fraction slightly higher than , dendrites can slide, roll and reorient as
a result of network collapse for grain rearrangement (Metz and Flemmings, 1970).
Through movements of dendrites in reduced scale, mass feeding can continue to occur
after coherency at solid fraction slightly higher than . However, as primary dendrite
arms growth decreases and secondary dendrite arm growth dominates, the dendrite
network formed tend to resist fluid flow thus can result in inadequate feeding. As the
solid fraction increases, the pressure gradient required for interdendritic flow increases
25
by solids can also form when the fraction liquid is so small hence, promoting shrinkage
porosities.
increased stresses in solids to the extent exceeding the network strength. Burst feeding
can occur at both macroscopic and microscopic levels. At macroscopic burst feeding, the
region of lower solid fraction can block off the region of higher solid fraction creating a
barrier to interdendritic flow. The barrier breaks down when the pressure in the liquid
is reduced such that it causes the stress in solid fraction to exceed the network strength.
At microscopic burst feeding, through similar mechanism, the ruptured dendrite arms
As a liquid region is further isolated from the supply of feed melt, the mush can
deform inward to release the hydrostatic tension as the isolated liquid continues to
freeze. This is called solid feeding as high solid fraction mush becomes viscoplastic. After
all solid have formed at solidus temperature, , solid contraction starts to occur. Figure
26
Figure 2.1. Illustration of feeding mechanism during solidification of alloy (adapted from
Dahle and St. John, 1998).
2.4 Summary
Even though some works have been done to help build an optimum casting
design that is free from shrinkage defect, most of these proposed methods still require
the designer to provide an initial design for evaluation and optimization. In order to save
computational cost and reduce the time to design the casting, it is important that the
designer develops a good initial design (Jensen et al., 1995). Moreover, the most
performed through heat transfer calculations using numerical approaches such as finite
27
difference method (FDM), finite element method (FEM) and finite volume method
(FVM).
According to Pehlke (2002), the earliest study found to solve the heat transfer
1962 utilizing the FDM technique. The heat transfer problem for solidification is
focus on solving the heat transfer caused by heat conduction without regard to
important convection factors in solidification. Campbell (1998) warned that the results
modeling can be found in Voller et al. (1990), Campbell (1991), Pehkle (2002), and
In metal solidification, fluid flow also plays a major role which creates the effect
convection and therefore these two terms are often handled together. Natural
convection which occurs due to the temperature difference in the liquid phase plays a
role by slowing down the solidification process but accelerate the melting process.
Therefore, consideration of convective fluid flow effect requires the coupling of energy
equation and the Navier-stokes equation. Studies considering the effect of natural
convection in phase change problems started to appear among researchers towards late
1970s. Zhang et al. (1997) conducted a study on the effect of natural convection during
28
Fluid flow due to natural convection in casting predominantly occurs within part
of the melt with a higher temperature due to non-equilibrium conditions that prevail
significant in the riser section which is designed to solidify later than the casting.
macroscopic levels. It can change the shapes of isotherms and reduces thermal
gradients in the melt. Convection hence causes the top regions to solidify slower than
redistribution of alloy constituents and the grain sizes, orientation and distribution
(Prescott and Incropera, 1996). Many castings problems can be explained by convection
(Campbell, 1998).
Most studies that include fluid flow focus on predicting the location of the
shrinkage porosities of a casting thus, requires extensive computational cost. Fluid flow
analysis in commercial casting software however, only available for mold filling
simulation due to its expensive computational cost. Current study focuses on evaluating
riser designs using both the heat transfer and convective fluid flow analysis, by taking
into account the convection and diffusion factors of the molten metal without the need
to run full solidification simulation of a casting. This model is useful to analyze the
feeding behavior as the casting developes dendrite coherency, since the metal still
casting was evaluated by running the simulation for only the initial stage of the
29
solidification until the casting developed dendrite coherency. Consequently, the
computational cost related to the convective fluid flow analysis can be reduced.
This study employed a new approach to evaluate the effectiveness of the riser
characteristic. Due to unavailability of the traditional sand casting system, the results of
current study were compared to experimental castings using the LFC casting method. As
most studies on risering techniques were validated using traditional sand casting system
on steel alloys, this study provides insight into effective feeding applicable to the
30
Chapter 3
In this chapter, a three dimensional solidification model used in this study for
metal casting involving natural convection will be described. Fluid flow caused by
the shape of the solid-liquid interface and the temperature distribution in the metal
casting. The following section will describe the general governing equations of heat,
momentum and mass conservations for the casting problem. These mathematical
models are based on the mixture model as discussed previously in chapter 2. Section 3.2
illustrates the numerical method of finite volume approach to solve the governing
equations. The finite volume discretization of the governing equations is shown based
on a fixed grid solution method. Section 3.3 will discuss the specific treatment to the
latent heat of solidification and the source terms used in the governing equations. The
model of this study is implemented for the casting solidification process in OpenFOAM
31
3.1 Solidification Model
In this dissertation study, the solidification modeling of liquid metal for casting
process involves two phases, i.e. liquid and solid phases. This study employed the
mixture-based model and therefore, the two phases are implicitly captured in the
formulation of the heat and mass conservation equations (Rosler and Br ggemenn,
2011, Brent et al., 1988). The equations solved will regard the liquid and solid phases as
one single phase. In literature this model is called the single-phase formulation. The gas
phase was not considered in this study even though it can present in some castings. The
b) The liquid metal is Newtonian ,i.e., the shear stress is directly proportional to the
c) The fluid metal is incompressible. The variation in density within the flow is
neglected.
d) Boussinesq approximation is valid for modeling the buoyancy effects, i.e. the
density varies due to the temperature difference and this variation in density
creates buoyancy force that influences the flow motion in liquid. Boussinesq
conservation equation.
32
f) The mold is instantaneously filled with molten metal with a given pouring
h) The pressure values calculated by the simulation program were not absolute but
relative values.
equations of mass, momentum and energy conservation. The mass conservation can be
written as
(3.1)
The conservation law of momentum dictates that the difference between the
rates of momentum in and out of the control volume must equal to the rate of
momentum must equals to the sum of all active forces. The forces include the shear
stress, pressure variations and body force due to gravitational acceleration. The
33
(3.2)
P is pressure, is the density and represents the momentum source term. The
second term on the left side of the equation is known as the convective term while the
third term on the left side of the equation is called the diffusion or viscous term.
The law of energy conservation is expressed as the heat added to the control volume
minus the heat released from the volume must equal to the energy increase in the
volume. The energy conservation equation that will calculate the temperature and solid
fraction is
(3.3)
the energy source term. The momentum and energy source terms will be discussed
In the mold, phase change does not occur and conduction is the only heat
follows:
34
(3.4)
(3.5)
where
(3.6)
The term is the Darcy-type source term used to model the effect of
solidification on the momentum, which describes the flow in the mushy region as a
function of the liquid fraction of the solidifying metal. K is a Carman-Kozeny term that
denotes the permeability of solid structure formed during solidification which embodies
the resistance of the solidifying structure to the feeding flow and is also called the
porosity function (Miehe, 2014). is a constant with a large value. The source term is
derived on the assumption that the solid and the mushy region behaves like a porous
medium allowing the liquid to flow through (Voller et al., 1990). In casting solidification,
Darcy flow model is important when the fraction solid present in the mush is significant
to form dendrite coherency (rigid dendritic network or structure). It assumes the solid
phase does not move and is fixed to the numerical grid. In the early stage of
35
solidification, this term becomes insignificant as solidification is governed by eiquiaxed
or eutectic solidification.
When in liquid, the Darcy term turns zero as the liquid fraction, is unity and
other words, the momentum equation represents the actual fluid velocity. On the
contrary, as the volume turns to solid, the term becomes zero and causes the Darcy
term to act as a prevailing momentum sink in the solid. This as a result, forces the
velocity to be zero. In order to prevent division by zero, a small constant, is used in the
denominator.
the constant C that is a characteristic of the mushy region morphology is similar for
thermophysical properties of the alloys affect the feeding behavior of the riser.
(3.7)
and (Rösler and Brüggemann, 2011). and are the liquidus and solidus
temperature respectively.
36
The second term, is the buoyancy source term based on the Boussinesq
model for approximating the natural convection in the fluid. This term represents the
buoyancy force that occurs from the density difference due to the temperature
variation in the solidifying metal. The buoyancy force is approximated by the Boussinesq
approximation when the density of the fluid is treated as constant except in the
(3.8)
The buoyancy force is in the direction of the gravity vector denoted by which
the liquidus temperature. The for the molten metal was determined using the
following equation
(3.9)
where is the percent change of the densities between the densities at the solidus
The latent heat of fusion which is the change in enthalpy due to the phase
change from a liquid to a solid, is taken into account using the energy source term, .
37
During the solidification between the liquidus and the solidus temperatures, the latent
(3.10)
H is the latent heat of fusion. The derivation of the above source term can be seen in
Rösler and Brüggemann (2011). The source term is derived by directly substituting the
continuous liquid fraction function decribed previously into the energy conservation
update the liquid fraction is necessary when coupling the liquid fraction function with
3.2.1 Temperature
Initially at time, ,
and
where is the room temperature, is the pouring temperature, is the sand mold
38
Across the metal casting and mold, the temperatures are coupled using the
transfer mechanism calculated by the function is conduction only with the assumption
of negligible thermal contact resistant between the mold and the metal interface. The
heat flux continuity between the metal and sand mold is described by the following
equation
(3.11)
where and are the metal and sand thermal conductivities respectively.
At the mold wall, the boundary condition is set using a convective heat transfer
coefficient between the mold and the environment. The prescribed heat transfer
coefficient is set using the GroovyBC library with OpenFOAM. The boundary condition as
(3.12)
where n is normal vector to the boundary surface and is the heat transfer coefficient
3.2.2 Velocity
39
A non-slip condition is assumed at the boundary. Therefore, the boundary
condition at the wall of the metal casting is zero velocity. Because of zero velocity
condition at the boundary and the buoyant flow, the pressure boundary condition is set
as bouyantPressure which will calculate the normal gradient appropriately by taking into
In the FVM approach, the computational domain is divided into discrete control
volumes as the computational grids (see Figure 3.1). The finite difference equations are
derived by applying the integral form of the conservation equations into the control
volume (CV) allowing the fluid properties, such as mass and momentum be conserved
at the discrete level. Most spatial derivative terms are then transformed into integrals
over the surfaces A bounding the cell volume using Gauss’s theorem as shown in
(3.13)
appropriate schemes that will be solved to gain the solution of the variables.
40
Figure 3.1: A generalized 2D control volume (Jana et al., 2007).
The following is the general form of the discretized equation based on the FVM
approach that sums up the fluxes going through all the faces of the CV. The algebraic
equations show the link between the dependant variable values and the neighboring
values.
(3.14)
The central coefficient is derived from the neighboring nodes, (nb=E, W, N, S),
and transient terms while the coefficient only contains the contribution from the
41
The set of linear algebraic equations can be solved with direct method or
iterative method. Some instances of direct method are Gaussian elimination and
Cramer’s rule matrix inversion. Iterative method uses a simple algorithm that is applied
repeatedly until convergence. Such examples of this method are Jacobi and Gauss-
Siedel point-by-point iterative techniques. Iterative method use less computing time but
This subsection will discuss the solution method for the pressure and velocity
coupling used in this thesis. The method adopted is called PIMPLE algorithm which is a
Transient Pressure Implicit with Splitting of Operator (PISO) algorithms which is adapted
for iterative solution procedure (Versteeg and Malalasekera, 2007). In PISO, the solution
to pressure-velocity coupling involves one momentum predictor step and two pressure
corrector steps in every time iteration. Therefore, PISO is similar to SIMPLE algorithm
PIMPLE however, needs only one corrector step but the pressure-velocity coupling was
solved twice in every time iteration. PISO method strictly requires very small time step
nonetheless, PIMPLE method allows bigger time step without compromising stability
making the computational cost less expensive. The following figure summarizes the
procedure in PIMPLE algorithm to find the solution values for the pressure and velocity
42
Start
No
Convergence?
Yes
Stop
43
3.3.1.1 Predictor
equations. The convective term of the continuum equation is linearized by using the
convective velocity from the previous time step n. The discretized equations of the
(3.15)
is the coefficient matrix of the solution vector while is the source terms. Note
that the matrix can change depending on the factors incorporated into the
matrix and off-diagonal matrix .The left hand side of the above equation can be
(3.16)
The pressure values are taken from the previous iteration . The above form of
equation is implemented and solved in OpenFOAM using a matrix solver that predicts
the value of the velocity so as to represent the calculation of the velocity predictor step
in PIMPLE.
The value of will not satisfy the continuity conservation until the pressure is
corrected giving Let first consider the velocity corrector step. The velocity corrector
44
(3.17)
Equation (3.10) above can be rearrange to calculate the first corrected velocity
as in the following
(3.18)
where .
becomes
(3.19)
which is known as the Poisson equation to calculate the first corrected pressure A
more detail derivation of the above equations can be referred to (Oliviera and Issa,
The above solution method was implemented in the CFD software, OpenFOAM
solidification of the casting process. This solver allows the conjugate heat transfer
between the casting and the mold to be simulated. In order to define the boundary
conditions for the casting mold and for mold-metal interface, groovyBC dictionary and
45
3.3.2 Numerical Schemes
The numerical schemes for discretizing the mathematical terms in the equations
were set in the fvSchemes dictionary in the system directory. The following schemes
understands the feeding behavior during the casting solidification. In the numerical
model used in OpenFOAM, the pressure gradient in the momentum equation 3.2
46
Since Boussinesq approximation was used to model natural convection, the
density was assumed constant in the liquid and caused the hydrostatic pressure at a
location to always remain the same. Therefore, OpenFOAM excluded the hydrostatic
pressure to account only the dynamic pressure that is responsible for driving the flow in
the fluid. Consequently, the flow behavior can be analyzed through the change in the
One of the field values calculated by OpenFOAM is the kinematic pressure value
which is represented by the term p_rgh to differentiate from the total pressure field
pressure divided by the density of the fluid. To investigate the flow behavior during the
by invoking the fvc::grad function in OpenFOAM. The code was adapted from the
field data. If the pressure is denoted by p, then the gradient of p is a vector field as
follows:
(3.22)
In this study, the fvc::grad function in OpenFOAM calculates the gradient of a field
by invoking Gauss Integration as the numerical scheme for solving the discretized
equations which was specified using the gradScheme keyword in an input file as
47
previously presented in Table 3.1. The program codes for solving the solidification
48
Chapter 4
This chapter describes the results and analysis of the solidification simulation on
sand casting cases as described in the following sections. The analysis focuses on
studying the behavior of the solidifying castings at the early stage of the solidification
process when the metal melt still dominantly behaved as liquid inside the castings. The
objective of this analysis was to investigate if the early results have any influence on the
shrinkage defects behavior of the castings. In this study, we investigated the rheological
behavior of the solidifying liquid metal at the early stage of casting solidification, when
heat transfer and fluid flow with the effect of natural convection are taken into account
in the simulation models. The goal of this study was to improve our understanding of
49
Many aluminum alloys are the materials that pose a great challenge in designing
the risers to feed the shrinkage during the solidification process in castings. The
application of risering techniques which are mostly based on thermal principle analysis
as discussed in chapter 2, for aluminum alloys can be limited in used since not much
information is available for these alloys pertaining to effective feeding or the same
sizes of the risers and the soundness of the castings for aluminum alloys.
The most popular Niyama criterion available in many simulation packages, that
is based on thermal gradient to predict shrinkage location which works relatively well
with materials such as steel, was shown to be less effective with aluminum alloys (Liotti
& Previtali, 2006, Jakumeit et al., 2012). This challenge is as a result of their mushy
nature during solidification and due to their high percentage of volumetric contraction
Consequently, most aluminum alloys need literally large risers to feed the shrinking
casting sections and casting yields of 25 to 45 percents based on weight poured become
Dahle and St. John (1998) described that the mushy regions during the
solidification of metal casting which can be divided into three regions, comprise of
related to the way the mush response to shear. Stress and pressure gradient present in
50
the mushy region that are responsible for driving the liquid motion, can influence the
formation of porosity defect. Dahle and St. John also claimed that the combined
understanding of the casting solidification in terms of mushy zone development and its
rheological behavior with flow induced by the casting and its feeding process, has the
potential to explain the defects occurred in castings. They also pointed out that the
The focus of this section is to show the influence of the convective fluid flow
during the liquid and mass feeding of the castings on the solidification patterns. Most
studies on risering methods are based on thermal principle analysis. The fluid flow was
omitted due to ability of thermal analysis to give good results for some alloys, and high
computational requirement for fluid flow analysis. In order to reduce the need for high
computational time for using fluid flow analysis and due to difficulty to quantify
interdendritic feeding, only the liquid and mass feeding stages were analyzed in current
As described in the earlier chapter, the mass feeding dominates from the
slurry solid grains before it diminishes at packing temperature. The pressure difference
required for mass feeding is also small. A study by Dahle and Arnberg (1997) on
aluminum alloys showed that the material has not developed any strength prior to
dendrite coherency indicating that the dendrites are floating freely and are independent
51
in the mushy zone. Therefore, the models used are relevant to analyze the solidification
The information gained in this study were used to determine how the changes in
the convective fluid flow behavior affect the effectiveness of the riser in feeding the
casting. The analysis was done on multi-steps casting using AlSi9Cu aluminum alloy.
AlSi9Cu has dendrite coherency temperature at about 849.15K (576 Celsius) (Backerud
et. al, 1990). The material properties and the geometry of the castings used in this study
The geometry of the casting and the riser used in the study is shown in Figure
4.1. The simulations were run on the part design for four types of risers. Table 4.1
52
Figure 4.1. Multi-steps casting geometry with a riser.
The simulations for the above casting models were carried at pouring
temperature of 973.15 K ( 700oC ). Table 4.2 and 4.3 show the standard material
53
compositions and the parameters for the thermophysical properties of the alloy used in
Element Si Fe Cu Mn Mg Zn Ti Fe/Mn
Composition % 7.5-9.5 1.0 3.0-4.0 0.5 0.10 2.9 0.35 2.0
Properties Values
Density , 2570 kg/m3
Thermal conductivity, k 70 W/m K
Latent heat of fusion, 479.234 kJ/kg
Specific heat capacity, 1000 J/kg K
Solidus temperature, 752.15 K
Liquidus Temperature, 851.15 K
Volumetric Thermal expansion 3.26 x 10-4 /K
coefficient,
Dynamic viscosity, 4.5 x 10-7 kg/ m s
The mold of the sand casting was of dry silica sand with initial temperature of
about 300K. The dimension of the mold used is 280 mm x 140 mm x 260 mm. The
interfacial heat transfer coefficient (IHTC) between the mold and atmosphere used was
54
11.2 W/ m2K. The properties of sand mold used in the simulations are shown in Table
4.4.
Properties Values
Density , 1520 Kg/m3
Thermal conductivity, k 0.6 W/m K
Specific heat capacity, 1170 J/kg K
Table 4.4. Silica sand mold properties used.
The meshes of 2,040,000 cells were generated using the SnappyHexMesh utility
in OpenFOAM that requires CAD drawing of the part in standard Stereolitography (STL)
format. The time step used in the simulations was 0.5 second. The experimental castings
of the models were carried out using the LFC sand casting.
Magmasoft software package was used to run the heat transfer simulation of the
casting models studied. Magmasoft only produces results based on the temperature
analysis but not the convective fluid flow analysis. Figure 4.2 portrays the shrinkage
porosities predictions based on the Niyama Criterion, which is derived from the
temperature gradient and cooling rate of the metal. The figure shows that all of the
models except model 1 could potentially produce sound castings. The experimental
castings, on the other hand, showed that Model 1-3 produced unsound castings while
55
Model 4 casting was free from shrinkage defect thus is considered sound (see Figure
4.3). From this results, it is evident that a thermal-based criterion can lead to inaccurate
56
Model 1 Model 2
57
Model 3 Model 4
Figure 4.2. Shrinkage porosities predictions using Niyama Criterion.
57
(a) (b)
(c) (d)
Figure 4.3. Casting of (a) Model 1, (b) Model 2, (c) Model 3 and (d) Model 4.
58
4.3 Flow Analysis of the Casting Models
This section illustrates the flow patterns from the numerical simulations of the
four multi-steps castings. Figures 4.4-4.10 show the velocity profiles taken at various
time steps for each casting model. The results show that as the riser size increases the
promotes mixing, it can be seen that the largest riser had more circular motion of liquid
flow compared to other sizes of risers. The mixing helps smooth out the temperature
gradient thus causing the riser and the casting to maintain a higher temperature for a
longer period of time. The mixing effect is mainly influenced by the temperature
difference and the thermal expansion coefficient, specified in the Boussinesq equation
more smooth upward flow channel at the middle of the riser. From Fgures 4.6, 4.8 and
4.10 in part (b), the circular flows which occurred at a later time become more uniform
inside the riser as a result of higher solid fraction formed, thus reducing the fluidity of
the molten metal. At this point the relative flow inside the riser is lower than 0.01 m/s.
59
(a)
(b)
(c)
60
(a)
(b)
61
(a)
(b)
62
(a)
(b)
63
(a)
(b)
64
(a)
(b)
65
(c)
(d)
66
Figures 4.11-4.12 portray the velocity fields at the time when the entire casting
sections had reached coherency. In addition, Table 4.5 contains the minimum and the
maximum velocities of each casting model when the casting section reached coherency.
Between the liquidus and the coherency temperatures, the flow rates were in the range
between the flow with order of magnitude 10-4 and the flow with order of magnitude
10-3. For making comparisons, the liquidus flow rate is defined as the flow relatively
higher than 0.0001 m/s which is approximately the minimum flow rate occurs above the
liquidus temperature inside the risers, when the casting sections reached coherency.
The coherency flow rate is defined as the flow relatively higher than 0.00001 m/s as this
flow rate approximately occurs as the minimum above the coherency temperature.
From Table 4.5, Model 1 part had the maximum velocity only slightly higher than
the minimum coherency flow rate while other models had maximum flow higher than
the minimum liquidus flow rate. From Figures 4.11-4.12, it can also be seen that all
models except Model 1 had the risers dominated by the liquidus flow rate. Figure 4.12
also shows that Model 4 still had a significant buoyancy effect in the riser as the flow in
the riser was less smooth than the flow in other risers. Model 3 and 4 indicate that the
liquid supply is still abundant in the riser for the casting sections. Model 3 however had
liquidus flow rate at a higher region from the casting sections. Model 3 and 4 had
liquidus flow rate close to the regions between the riser and the casting section. By
comparing with the experimental results, it can be concluded that the casting sections
that is disconnected from the region with liquidus flow rate in the riser at casting
67
Model Min velocity Maximum velocity
1 2.39e-17 7.79e-5
2 2.48e-13 .00773
3 1.15e-13 .0208
4 2.69e-13 .0328
From this analysis, it is found that the size of the riser has significant effect on
the flow in the riser when the casting section reached coherency. Inefficient riser will
produce a very small flow rate at the region between the riser and the casting therefore,
increases the difficulty to feed the casting with feed metal. Small flow rate suggests that
the pressure gradient that drives the flow of the fluid is also small. In conclusion, it is
important to design a riser that is still entirely dominated by liquidus flow rate at the
time when the casting has reached coherency to ensure continuous feeding from the
riser.
The plot of the cooling curve at the beginning of the solidification for the
location studied is shown in Figure 4.13. From the plot, it can be seen that the bigger the
riser the higher the temperature at a certain period in time. However, for the sound
later time. This observation could be due to the higher convection effect in Model 4
which was responsible for advecting higher volume of hot liquid upward, reducing the
68
local temperature at the bottom faster as colder liquid glides down the casting
(Campbell, 1998).
(a)
(b)
Figure 4.11. Velocity fields at casting coherency for (a) Model 1 and (b) Model 2.
69
(a)
(b)
Figure 4.12. Velocity fields at casting coherency for (a) Model 3 and (b) Model 4.
70
980
960
940
Temperature (K)
920
Model 1
900
Model 2
880 Model 3
Model 4
860
840
820
0 20 40 60 80 100 120
Time
Figure 4.14 demonstrates the flow field by the scaled vectors at coherency. In
OpenFOAM, vectors are drawn as it is, therefore a vector of magnitude 1 m/s will be
drawn 1 meter long. In order to fit the castings without significantly affecting the flow
patterns, the vectors were scaled by 0.5 of its original magnitude value. From Figure
4.14, Model 1 casting had no apparent flow at coherency while Model 2 flow was only
apparent at the top of the riser suggesting that the flow at the bottom of the riser in
bulk motion had disappeared or became stagnant at macro level. Model 3 still had
significant flow occurring in most part of the riser except the very bottom of the riser.
71
Only Model 4 showed a presence of significant flow of metal in bulk motion at the
region between the riser and the casting section at casting coherency.
The above results suggest that the appearance of apparent flow field inside the
riser is critical in determining a continuous feed flow from the riser when the casting
section has reached coherency. When the casting section is disconnected from the
apparent flow field, the casting will be prone to shrinkage porosities. For that regards, it
is important for a good riser to maintain a distinct flow of the metal inside the entire
72
Model 1 Model 2
73
Model 3 Model 4
Figure 4.14. Scaled velocity vectors when the casting sections reached coherency.
73
4.4 Pressure Analysis
driving the flow at the beginning of the alloy solidification. This pressure difference is
induced by the dynamic of the fluid motion. The pressure discrepancy in the castings
was only observed prior to the start of the solidification before it diminished as the
liquid melt started to solidify. This was due to the pressure difference governed by the
flow of the metal in the casting due to thermal or natural convection. As previously
discussed, during the mass feeding stage the alloy still behaves like a liquid. After that
the pressure gradient inside the dendritic mush is derived according to the Darcy’s Law
for the interdendritic porous medium as follows (Voller et. al, 1987):
(4.1)
Even though the pressure gradient in the liquid metal is relatively small, the
following analysis investigates the pressure profiles driven by the liquid flow until the
flow in the casting reaches dendrite coherency or the formation of dendritic network.
Figure 4.15 illustrates the relative kinematic pressure profiles for Model 1 casting at
different time intervals until the pressure had turned uniform across all part geometry.
Initially there were significant pressure differences in the casting due to higher motion
74
of the liquid metal. The higher motion of the liquid melt at the beginning of the
solidification created lower pressure regions inside the casting. As the velocity in the
casting decreased, the liquid motion became more restricted and thus reducing the
pressure gradient across the casting. As the fraction solid increased, the pressure inside
Figure 4.16 portrays the kinematic pressure gradient distribution inside the
casting at various time intervals until the pressure gradient diminished or became
significantly very low. As we analyzed the gradient profile and plot the isotherms that
(colored in red), it can be seen that the isotherm closely bounded the region that
the pressure gradient calculated is related to the force due to flow, considerable
pressure gradient was more apparent inside the region filled with liquid metal before
the temperature reached the liquidus point, i.e, before the solidification started. From
the figure, it can also be seen that the pressure gradient dropped significantly once the
As the coherency isotherm moved towards the region outside of the casting
section, i.e, into the riser, the pressure gradient decreased significantly creating a larger
region of a very low pressure gradient at the bottom within the liquidus isotherm loop.
The gap between the isotherm and isotherm also widen as the isotherms
leaved the casting section from the lower part of the riser. The following section
75
(a) (b)
76
(c) (d)
Figure 4.15. Pressure distribution of Model 1 at (a) 1 s, (b) 5 s, (c) 10 s and (d) 30 s time intervals.
76
will show how the sizes of the risers influence the pressure gradient distribution in
relation to the dendrite contour line. Based on this information, the feedability of
77
78
(a) (b)
(c) (d)
Figure 4.16. Pressure gradient profiles of Model 1 at (a) 5 s, (b) 10 s, (c) 20 s and (d) 30 s.
78
4.5 Evaluation of Feeding Efficiency Using Convective Fluid Flow
Analysis
This section discusses how the analysis of the pressure gradient can help
determine the design of the riser that produce porosity-free casting. The casting models
as described in section 4.1 have the modulus difference between the riser and casting
from 26% to 346% as illustrated in Table 4.6. Based on Table 4.6, it can be seen that the
sound casting from Model 4 has low casting yield of 26 percents. Therefore, it is not
surprising that the part casting required large riser with volume exceeding the volume of
the casting to eliminate the shrinkage porosities from the casting section.
Table 4.6. The modulus difference between the casting and riser and casting yield for
each model.
Figure 4.17 displays the pressure gradient distributions for all models at the time
when the coherency had reached the entire casting section. The isotherms correspond
to the liquidus and coherency temperatures are also shown with red and white lines
79
respectively. As the coherency contour line exited the casting from the lower region of
the riser, it can be seen that the gap between the coherency isotherm and liquidus
isotherm at the bottom of the risers widen for the unsound castings. The smaller the
riser, the wider the gap was. The model of sound casting is shown to maintain the
narrow gap between the two isotherms as depicted in Figure 4.16 (d).
The pressure gradient at the lower region of the riser also reduced significantly
as the entire casting section reached coherency. The smaller the riser the much lower
the pressure gradient became. The smallest riser as depicted in Figure 4.16(a) showed
an overall very low pressure gradient compared to others with no apparent pressure
gradient differential as the liquidus isotherm had vanished. The sound casting on the
other hand showed a significant presence of pressure gradient at the bottom of the riser
above the liquidus isotherm. From above findings, it is evident that understanding the
convective fluid flow behavior during the solidification can help us understand the
In order to clearly see the influence of the flow behavior on the feedability of the
riser, the plot of the pressure gradient over time taken at a middle point between the
riser and the casting section was made as in Figure 4.18. The plot illustrates the
differences in the magnitudes of the pressure gradients as the riser sizes varied. The
maximum pressure gradient increased as the riser size increased corresponding to the
increase in the liquid momentum. After the pressure gradient reached its maximum, it
80
Figure 4.19 is the close-up plot of the pressure gradients over time within the
range they turned to zero. The figure portrays how the pressure gradient diminished as
the size of the riser increased. The red marking on each of the lines representing a
different riser size, corresponds to the time when the casting point reached coherency
at temperature . Even though the magnitudes of the pressure gradients are relatively
small that often considered negligible, it can be clearly seen that the pressure gradients
of the first two models of the castings which had smaller risers, diminished to zero
immediately after coherency. Model 3 casting showed the pressure gradient gradually
depreciated over some time interval before it became zero. Model 4 casting which
produced sound casting had a slower rate of pressure gradient depreciation over a
significantly longer time period. The pressure gradient declining to zero as it is related to
the motion of the fluid could signify the end the mass feeding so that interdendritic
feeding dominates the casting after coherency. The longer the mass feeding become
available after the casting section reaches coherency, the more liquid can be fed into
the casting. Therefore, the size of the riser could influence how the feeding mechanisms
linear regression method was applied to the data from the point of coherency until it
became zero (see Figure 4.20). The regression analysis was only performed on Model 3
and 4 since only these two models showed gradual decline of the pressure gradients
over significant time ranges. Table 4.7 summarizes the rate of the pressure gradient
depreciation based on the slope of the regression line. The time range from coherency
81
to zero is also shown in the table. The table shows that Model 4 had the decline rate
approximately twice less than that of Model 3 over a time range about double than that
of Model 3. This suggests that a sound casting requires more time for the liquid flow to
occur from the riser after the casting section reaches coherency. As a conclusion, a good
riser must allow continuous liquid feeding after the casting reaches coherency over
this study shows that the pressure gradient can have significant influence on the
effectiveness of the riser and the soundness of the casting. The pressure gradient can
portray the penetration degree of the convective flow into the coherent mushy region.
By taking into account the rheological behavior of the mushy region, it can therefore
give more accurate prediction about the soundness of the casting for a given riser
design.
82
83
(a) (b)
(c) (d)
Figure 4.17. Pressure gradient distributions with liquidus and coherency temperature isotherms when all of area inside the casting
sections had reached coherency temperature; (a) Model 1, (b) Model 2, (c) Model 3 and (d) Model 4.
83
Figure 4.18. Plot of pressure gradient over time at a point between riser and casting.
84
Figure 4.19. Close-up plot of pressure gradient as it depreciated over time to zero at a
point between riser and casting.
85
0.0012
0.001
Pressure Gradient (m/s)2
0.0008
0.0006
0.0004
0.0002
0
45 47 49 51 53 55 57 59 61 63 65 67 69 71 73
Time (s)
(a)
0.0009
0.0008
0.0007
Pressure Gradient (m/s)2
0.0006
0.0005
0.0004
0.0003
0.0002
0.0001
0
45 47 49 51 53 55 57 59 61 63 65 67 69 71 73
Time (s)
(b)
Figure 4.20. Regression applied on the pressure gradient over time; (a) Model 3and (b)
Model 4
86
Model
Model 1
Model 2
Model 3 -.0000895 11 s
Model 4 -.0000331 22 s
Table 4.7. The depreciation rate of the pressure gradient after coherency.
87
4.6 Sensitivity Analysis of the Constant C Value in the Solidification
Simulation.
depend on the morphology of the mushy region. The choice of constant C can influence
the shape of the mushy region. The constant influences the penetration degree into the
mushy region by the convection field (Brent et.al, 1988). Since this value is hard to
to know how the values of C affect to feedability of the risers on the studied geometry.
Therefore, simulations were run by varying the values of constant C in the momentum
equation. The values and were chosen based on the values recommended by
Guthrie and Tavares (1998) and Zeng et. al (2009). as well as found in the Van Tol
(1998).
Figure 4.21 illustrates the plot of the pressure gradients over time for the studied
casting designs while Figure 4.22 shows the close-up of the plot over time from the
coherency point until the pressure gradient diminished to zero. As can be seen, the
constant C affects the convective flow behavior of the molten metal as portrayed by the
shape of the curves in the plot. Nonetheless, changing the value of constant C did not
change the feedability patterns among the riser designs studied. Even though lower
value of constant C increases the time interval over which the pressure gradient
diminished for all of the riser designs due to increase in convective flow, the pattern for
the sound casting is still distinguishable from the unsound castings. As in Figure 4.22,
88
the sound casting always took almost or twice the time for the decline of the pressure
gradient after casting coherency, than that of the intermediate design of which the
decline took over some time range but the casting was unsound. The depreciation rates
from the slopes of the linear regression analysis differed by one order of magnitude
between the sound and unsound castings for both C values as shown in Table 4.8 which
is more significant than the difference showed by C value of 106 . As these two values of
constant C do not change the result of the riser effectiveness, the value of constant C of
106 as was used in initial analysis is therefore a reasonable value to use in the
89
(a)
(b)
Figure 4.21. Plot of pressure gradient over time at a point between riser and casting
with constant (a) C = 103 and (b) C = 107.
90
(a)
(b)
Figure 4.22. Close-up plot of pressure gradient as it depreciated over time to zero at a
point between riser and casting with (a) constant C=103and (b) constant C = 107.
91
Model
Model 1 -.000142 18 s
Model 2 -.000142 27 s
Model 3 -.000211 28 s
Model 4 -.0000157 50 s
(a)
Model
Model 1
Model 2
Model 3 -.000170 11 s
Model 4 -.0000609 23 s
(b)
Table 4.8. The depreciation rate of the pressure gradient after coherency with (a)
92
4.6 Evaluation of Feeding Effectiveness on Long Freezing Range Alloy:
This section describes the use of the evaluation technique for feeding
effectiveness of the riser applied to AlSi7Mg alloy. This alloy has a lower range of silicon
content from 6.5 to 7.5 percent compared to the previous alloy which has the range
from 7.5 to 9.5 percent. Studies have shown that silicon content in aluminum alloys can
influence the grain morphology and the fraction solid at coherency (B ckerud et al.,
1990). The higher the silicon content is, the more dendritic the grain morphology is and
the less the fraction solid present at coherency. AlSi7Mg alloy has coherency
temperature at about 4 degree Celsius below its liquidus temperature. Thus the larger
gap between the and corresponds to the lower silicon content which results in
the alloy reaches coherency at a higher fraction solid. AlSi7Mg is also known as a long
freezing range alloy partly due to its magnesium content (Kaufman, 2000).
The convective fluid flow analysis was carried out on the same steps geometry
from the previous section. The following data of the thermophysical properties were
used in the simulations (see Table 4.10). The pouring temperature was 1008.15 K ( 735
O
C ) to maintain the same range between the liquidus and the pouring temperatures as
was done for AlSi9Cu alloy. Since this alloy has a higher volumetric contraction
percentage of approximately 5.35 percent, it is expected that the part will require a
larger riser to produce a sound casting for the similar step geometry. For the purpose of
93
the study analysis, the simulations were run for three models of risers with the following
Element Si Fe Cu Mn Mg Zn Ti
Composition % 6.5-7.5 0.5 0.25 0.35 0.25- 0.35 0.25
0.45
Properties Values
Density , 2430 kg/m3
Thermal conductivity, k 68 W/m K
Latent heat of fusion, 430.518 kJ/kg
Specific heat capacity, 1168 J/kg K
Solidus temperature, 815.15 K
Liquidus Temperature, 886.15 K
Volumetric Thermal expansion 7.53 x 10-4 /K
coefficient,
Dynamic viscosity, 4.5 x 10-7 kg/ m s
94
Model Riser diameter, d Riser Height, h (mm) Neck dimension (dxh)
(mm) mm
1 80 100 55 x 10
2 100 100 55 x 10
3 120 90 55 x 10
Table 4.12. The modulus difference between the casting and riser and the casting yield
Figure 4.23 displays the pressure gradient distributions as the casting sections
reached coherency. From the figure, it is evident that Model 1 would not produce a
sound casting. To further evaluate the feedability of Model 2 and Model 3, the plot of
the pressure gradient over time was constructed as in Figure 4.24-4.25. Following
similar trend from previous alloy, the plot in Figure 4.25 shows that Model 1 and Model
depreciation over a wider time interval before reaching zero. Regression analysis in
Table 4.13 shows that the depreciation rate of Model 3 is almost twice less than the rate
95
of Model 2 and the time interval of the pressure gradient decline after coherency was
more than twice of Model 2. Based on these results, Model 3 was expected to be a
sound casting.
Model
Model 1 0
Model 2 -.0000681 7
Model 3 -.0000446 15
Table 4.13. The depreciation rate of the pressure gradient after coherency.
The experimental castings showed that only Model 3 make a sound casting
hence is in agreement with the result above (see Figure 4.27). Model 2 which was a
sound casting with AlSi9Cu alloy, showed scattered small porosities present throughout
the riser and the region in the casting below the riser. Other than small scattered
internal porosities seen, note that this alloy also had a surface sink shrinkage at the top
of the riser which is a common form of shrinkage defect seen on this alloy (Reis et
al.,2008). Model 3 were found to have no internal porosities like in model 2 except the
surface sink at the top of the riser. Thermal analysis also showed consistent result as
previously found with AlSi9Cu alloy. In Figure 4.28, the temperature curve for Model 3
became lower than that of Model 1 and 2 initially and later maintained a higher
96
(a)
(b)
(c)
Figure 4.23. Pressure gradient distribution when all of the casting section reached
coherency for (a) Model 1, (b) Model 2, and (d) Model 3.
97
Figure 4.24. Plot of pressure gradient over time at a point between riser and casting.
98
Figure 4.25. Close-up plot of pressure gradient as it depreciated over time to zero at a
point between riser and casting.
99
0.0006
0.0005
Pressure Gradient (m/s)2
0.0004
0.0003
0.0002
0.0001
0
37 39 41 43 45 47 49 51 53 55 57
Time (s)
(a)
0.0007
0.0006
0.0005
Pressure Gradient (m/s)2
0.0004
0.0003
0.0002
0.0001
0
37 39 41 43 45 47 49 51 53 55 57
-0.0001
Time (s)
(b)
Figure 4.26. Regression applied on the pressure gradient over time; (a) Model 2 and (b)
Model 3
100
The results of the analysis on the long-freezing-range alloy, AlSi7Mg are
consistent with the results on the short-freezing-range alloy, AlSI9Cu. Even though the
solidification characteristics of long freezing range alloys are distinct from short freezing
range alloys, the analysis of pressure gradient seems promising in determining the
feedability of a riser and its effectiveness. It is therefore evident that influence of the
understanding the feedability of the risers. Figure 4.29 present the framework for the
101
(a)
(b)
102
980
Model 1
Model 2
Model 3
960
940
Temperature (K)
920
900
880
860
0 20 40 60 80 100
Time (s)
103
Figure 4.29. Framework for riser design and optimization.
104
Chapter 5
Summary
the convective fluid flow analysis. Solidification model using heat transfer and
convective fluid flow with natural convection was implemented in an open-source CFD
program called OpenFOAM thus any interested parties can easily implement the
method. The simulations were carried on multi-steps castings with various riser designs
for AlSi9Cu and AlSi7Mg alloys. During the analysis, the rheological state of the mushy
region was taken into account particularly when the casting section developed dendrite
coherency.
105
5.1 Contributions
As point out by Dahle and St. John (1998), porosity formation can be influenced
by the development of the mushy region and the ways it responses to shear stress.
during casting solidification, this study shows how the characteristics of pressure
gradient induced by the motion of the convective flow can signify the feeding
effectiveness of the risers into the castings. It is also found that the behavior of the flow
during the early stage of the solidification particularly during the interdendritic structure
development is essentially useful in identifying any feeding difficulty based on the riser
characteristics. The analysis presented in this study can therefore, help detects the
feeding problem early on hereby increasing the chance being right the first time. The
findings thus prove the claim by Dahle and St. John (1998) that dendrites development
alloys.
Campbell (1998) stated that sufficient pressure gradient must be present for
gradient between the risers and the castings after dendrite coherency as shown by the
analysis on the aluminum-silicon alloys. As a result, the analysis using thermal and
convective fluid flow models proves to be important to understand the feeding of the
risers and help determine the best risers that produce sound castings. As most studies
using thermal analysis focus on the short freezing range alloy, the same current
technique was also found to work on the long freezing range alloy as shown by the
106
analysis on AlSi7Mg. Such outcome could be due to better accuracy gained from
including convective fluid flow analysis. Even so, current technique only requires partial
foundries.
simulation tool to help in improving the design of castings. Even though casting
simulation can significantly help foundries in reducing the cost and time spent in the
design process thus becoming more competitive, the cost of the simulation packages
that are available commercially can be very expensive. This can be a disadvantage to
small scale foundries especially in low income countries. Studies using OpenFOAM, an
open-source software that is available for free, allow the small enterprises gain the
benefits from the advance of the computing technology in the context of casting
simulation.
While the experimental study was conducted on the lost foam casting, the
numerical models used are relevant to any solidification process in general and
therefore, applicable to other forms of sand casting process including the investment
casting. However, the models used are based on some simplifying assumptions that
could affect the accuracy of the results. In spite of that, the use of OpenFOAM gives the
user the flexibility to exploit the models to tailor for specific applications. In order to
expand the validity and applicability of the techniques presented in this study, the
107
5.2 Future Recommendations
The followings are the recommendations for further research related to the
a) Perform analysis on complex geometries and casting with multiple top risers.
Complex geometries can be divided into several section, each with its own
feeding system.
following analyses:
aluminum alloys and other alloys such as steel, copper alloys and etc.
alloys.
c. Do analysis using different casting process such as green sand casting and
c) For more accurate solidification prediction, use solidification model that consider
d) Do analysis using solidification model with different solid fraction function such
108
e) Develop and implement a stopping criterion into the simulation program that
allows sufficient time for the pressure gradient decline after the casting section
reaches coherency.
109
References
B ckerud, L., Chai, G., & Tamminen, J. (1990). Solidification characteristics of aluminum
alloys. Vol. 2. Foundry Alloys. American Foundrymen's Society, Inc., 1990, 266.
Behera, R., Kayal, S., & Sutradhar, G. (2011). Solidification behavior and detection of
715-726.
110
Belhamadia, Y., Kane, A. S., & Fortin, A.. (2012). An enhanced mathematical model for
Bishop, H. F., Myskowski, E. T., & Pellini, W. S. (1955). A simplified method for
Bishop, H. F., & Pellini, W. S. (1950). The contribution of riser and chill-edge effects to
Bishop, H. F., Myskowski, E. T., & Pellini, W. S. (1951). The contribution of risers and
chill-edge effects to soundness of cast steel bars. AFS Transactions, 59, 171-180.
New York.
Brent, A. D., Voller, V. R., & Reid, K. T. J. (1988). Enthalpy-porosity technique for
Campbell, J (1969). Feeding mechanisms in castings. AFS Cast Metal Research Journal, 5,
1-8.
111
Campbell, J. (1998, October). The ten castings rules guidelines for the reliable
Campbell, J. (2004). Castings practice: The ten rules of castings. UK: Butterworth-
Heinemann, Oxford.
Dahle, A. K., & StJohn, D. H. (1998). Rheological behavior of the mushy zone and its
Gaindhar, J., Mohan, C., & Tyagi, S. (1988). Optimization of riser design in metal casting.
Gourlay, C. M., and Dahle, A. K. (2005). The five feeding mechanisms. Shape Casting: The
112
Greenshield, C. J. (2015). OpenFOAM programmer’s guide. Retrieved from http://foam.
sourceforge.net/docs/Guides-a4/ProgrammersGuide.pdf
Guthrie, R. I. L., & Tavares, R. P. (1998). Mathematical and physical modeling of steel
Han, Q., Kenik, E., & Viswanathan, S. (2000). Die soldering in aluminum die
casting. Aluminum Committee at the 129th TMS Annual Meeting, Nashville, TN.
Hansen, P. N., & Sahm, P. R. (1988). How to model and simulate the feeding process in
Hong, C. P. (2004). Computer modelling of heat and fluid flow in materials processing.
CRC Press.
Iyer, N., Jayanti, S., Lou, K., Kalyanaraman, Y., & Ramani, K. (2005). Three-dimensional
shape searching: state-of-the-art review and future trends. Computer Aided Design,
37,509-530.
Jacob, E., Sasikumar, R., Praveen, B., & Gopalakrishna, V. (2004). Intelligent design of
Jakumeit, J., Jana, S., Böttger, B., Laqua, R., Jouani, M. Y., & Bührig-Polaczek, A. (2012,
113
casting: Fully-coupled numerical calculation vs. criteria functions. In IOP Conference
Series: Materials Science and Engineering (Vol. 27, No. 1, p. 012066). IOP Publishing.
Jana, S., Ray, S., & Durst, F. (2007). A numerical method to compute solidification and
Jasak, H. (1996). Error analysis and estimation for the finite volume method with
Jensen, D.H, Beckermann, C., Fischer, G.W., & Srinivasan, V. (1995). Capabilities and
Johns, R. (1987). Casting design. Des Plaines: American Foundrymen's Society, Inc.
Kalpakjian, S. (1995), Manufacturing engineering and technology (3th ed.), Boston, MA:
Addison-Wesley.
Kor, J., Chen, X., Sun, Z., & Hu, H. (2009). Casting design through multiobjective
Technology and Management Engineering 2009, FITME ’09, Los Alamitos, CA. IEEE
Computer Society.
114
Liao, D.M, Zhao, J.X, Chen, L.L, Shen, X., & Gong, X.D (2011). Casting CAD/CAE automatic
optimal riser design technology. International Journal of Cast Metals Research, 24,
247-252.
Liotti, E., & Previtali, B. (2006). Study of the validity of the Niyama criteria function
Marques, M.J, (N.A). CAE techniques for casting optimization. Retrieved from
http://www.esi-group.com/products/casting/publications/Articles_PDF/FInegi-
Ans.pdf
Proceedings of the 63rd Annual Meeting, Des Plaines, IL, Apr(pp. 13-17).
Metz, S. A., & Flemings, M. C. (1970). Fundamental study of hot tearing. AFS
Transactions, 453-460.
resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bsz:105-qucosa-149625.
Minami, R. (2005). Research on porosity defects of Al-Si alloy castings made with
http://hdl.handle.net/2065/5361.
Morthland, T.E., Byrne, P.E., Tortorelli, D.A., & Dantzig, J.A. (1995). Optimal riser design
115
N.A, (2006). Sand casting. Retrieved from http://materialrulz.weebly.com/
mcomlec1.html.
Narender, K., Rao, A. S. M., Rao, K. G. K., & Krishna, N. G. (2013). Temperature
7075 and 7095 by gamma ray attenuation method. Journal of Modern Physics, 4,
331-336.
J. Oliveira, Raad I. Issa, P. (2001). An improved PISO algorithm for the computation of
493.
Ou, S., Carlson, K. D., Hardin, R. A., & Beckermann, C. (2002). Development of new
feeding-distance rules using casting simulation: Part II. The new rules. Metallurgical
Ou, S., Carlson, K. D., & Beckermann, C. (2005). Feeding and risering of high-alloy steel
560.
116
Prakash, C., & Voller, V. (1989). On the numerical solution of continuum mixture model
Prescott, P. J., & Incropera, F. P. (1996). Convection heat and mass transfer in alloy
Ransing, R.S. and Sood, M.P. (2005). Review of optimization methods for casting
simulation. Shape Casting: The John Campbell Symposium, San Francisco, CA.
Ravi, B. (2008). Casting simulation and optimization: Benefits, bottlenecks and best
http://efoundry.iitb.ac.in/TechnicalPapers/2009/2009VNIT_CompAidCastDesSim.
Reis, A., Houbaert, Y., Xu, Z., Van Tol, R., Santos, A. D., Duarte, J. F., & Magalhães, A. B.
Rösler, F., & Brüggemann, D. (2011). Shell-and-tube type latent heat thermal energy
storage: numerical analysis and comparison with experiments. Heat and mass
117
Retrieved from http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.402087
Samarskii, A., Vabishchevich, P. N., Iliev, O. P., & Churbanov, A. G. (1993). Numerical
Sata, A. (2010) Shrinkage porosity prediction using casting simulation (Master’s thesis).
SFSA (2001). Feeding & Risering Guidelines for Steel Castings. Steel Founders’s Society of
America.
Spittle, J. A., Almeshhedani, M., & Brown, S. G. R. (1994). The Niyama function and its
Stoll, H. (1998). Tutorial: Casting design issues and practices. Materials Solutions
118
Sutaria, M., & Ravi, B. (2012, October). Gradient vector method for computing feed-
Sutaria, M., & Ravi, B. (2014). Computation of casting solidification feed-paths using
gradient vector method with various boundary conditions. The International Journal
Tan, R. K., Arimilli, R., & Parang, M. (1998). Computer-aided design of a semi-permanent
mold for the casting of an aluminum spool. Materials Solutions Conference '98 on
Tavakoli, R., & Davami, P. (2007). Optimal feeder design in sand casting process by
Tavakoli, R. and Davami, P. (2008). Automatic optimal feeder design in steel casting
Tavakoli, R., & Davami, P. (2008). Optimal riser design in sand casting process by
202.
Tortorelli, D.A, Tomaasko, J.A, Morthland, T.E, Dantziq, J.A (1994). Optimal design of
119
casting optimization, Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering,
113, 157-172.
Upadhya, G., & Paul, A. J. (1993). Rational design of gating and risering for castings: A
new approach using knowledge base and geometric analysis. Transactions of the
Vakhrushev, A., Ludwig A., Wu, M., Tang, Y., Nitzl, G. and Hackl, G. (2010). Modeling of
turbulent melt flow and solidification processes in steel continuous caster with the
open source software package OpenFOAM®. Proc. OSCIC’10, Munich, Nov. 4-5, pp.
1-17.
Van Tol, A. (1998). Mould filling of horizontal thin wall castings. (Doctoral Dissertation),
Vijayaram, T. R., Sulaiman, S., Hamouda, A. M. S., & Ahmad, M. H. M. (2006). Numerical
Voller, V. R., & Prakash, C. (1987). A fixed grid numerical modelling methodology for
Voller, V. R., Brent, A. D., & Prakash, C. (1989). The modelling of heat, mass and solute
120
Veldman, N. L., Dahle, A. K., StJohn, D. H., & Arnberg, L. (2001). Dendrite coherency of
dynamics: the finite volume method. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.
Voller, V. R., Cross, M., & Markatos, N. C. (1987). An enthalpy method for
Voller, V. R., Brent, A. D., & Prakash, C. (1990). Modelling the mushy region in a binary
Voller, V. R., Swaminathan, C. R., & Thomas, B. G. (1990). Fixed grid techniques for
Wang, C. M., Paul, A. J., Fincher, W. W., & Huey, O. J. (1993). Computational analysis of
fluid flow and heat transfer during the EPC process. Transactions of the American
Zeng, X., & Faghri, A. (1994). Temperature-transforming model for binary solid-liquid
121
Zeng, J., Koitzsch, R., Pfeifer, H., & Friedrich, B. (2009). Numerical simulation of the twin-
Zhang, Y., Chen, Z., & Faghri, A. (1997). Heat transfer during solidification around a
Zhou, G. (2005). Analysis of reasons causing riser feeding failure in nodular iron castings
Zhou, J., & Jing, T. (2003). Integration of CAD/CAE system for casting process design.
122
Appendix A
This section contains the programming codes for the solver and the post-
processing application for calculating the pressure gradient. The solver, named
conjugate heat transfer in multi regions. The following summarizes the structure of the
solver for simulating the solidification of the metal,represented by the fluid region; and
heat transfer inside the casting mold, represented by the solid region. The fluid
simulation is adapted from the meltFoam solver as available from the forum at
www.cfd-online.com.
123
solidFoam
solver
solidFoam.C
readPIMPLEcontrols.H
regionProperties
regionProperties.H
regionProperties.C
fluid
createFluidFields.H
createFluidMeshes.H
icoContinuityErrors.H
icoCourantNo.H
icoCourantNo.C
icoMultiRegionCourantNo.H
initContinuityErrs.H
readFluidMultiRegionPIMPLEControls.H
readTransportProperties.H
setRegionFluidFields.H
storeOldFluidFields.H
readFluidMultiRegionPIMPLEControls.H
Ueqn.H
hEqn.H
pEqn.H
solid
createSolidFields.H
createSolidMeshes.H
readSolidTimeControls.H
setRegionSolidFields.H
solidRegionDiffNo.H
solidRegionDiffNo.C
solidRegionDiffusionNo.H
readSolidMultiRegionPIMPLEControls.H
solveSolid.H
Make
files
options
include
setInitialMultiRegionDeltaT.H
setMultiRegionDeltaT.H
124
A.1 SolidFoam.C
-----------------------------------------------------------------
#include "fvCFD.H"
#include "fixedGradientFvPatchFields.H"
#include "regionProperties.H"
#include "solidRegionDiffNo.H"
#include "mathematicalConstants.H"
#include "icoCourantNo.H"
// * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ** * * * * * * //
regionProperties rp(runTime);
#include "createFluidMeshes.H"
#include "createSolidMeshes.H"
#include "createFluidFields.H"
#include "createSolidFields.H"
#include "initContinuityErrs.H"
#include "readTimeControls.H"
#include "readSolidTimeControls.H"
#include "icoMultiRegionCourantNo.H"
#include "solidRegionDiffusionNo.H"
#include "setInitialMultiRegionDeltaT.H"
while (runTime.run())
{
#include "readTimeControls.H"
#include "readSolidTimeControls.H"
#include "readPIMPLEControls.H"
#include "icoMultiRegionCourantNo.H"//added
#include "solidRegionDiffusionNo.H"
#include "setMultiRegionDeltaT.H"
runTime++;
if (nOuterCorr != 1)
{
forAll(fluidRegions, i)
{
#include "setRegionFluidFields.H"
#include "storeOldFluidFields.H"
}
}
125
// --- PIMPLE loop
for (int oCorr=0; oCorr<nOuterCorr; oCorr++)
{
bool finalIter = oCorr == nOuterCorr-1;
forAll(fluidRegions, i)
{
Info<< "\nSolving for fluid region "
<< fluidRegions[i].name() << endl;
#include "setRegionFluidFields.H"
#include
"readFluidMultiRegionPIMPLE
Controls.H"
#include "solveFluid.H"
}
forAll(solidRegions, i)
{
Info<< "\nSolving for solid region "
<< solidRegions[i].name() << endl;
#include "setRegionSolidFields.H"
#include
"readSolidMultiRegionPIMPLE
Controls.H"
#include "solveSolid.H"
}
}
runTime.write();
return 0;
}
// *********************************************** //
A.2 readPIMPLEcontrols.H
-----------------------------------------------------------------
// Construct the fvSolution for the runTime.
fvSolution solutionDict(runTime);
const dictionary& pimple = solutionDict.subDict("PIMPLE");
const int nOuterCorr =
126
pimple.lookupOrDefault<int>("nOuterCorrectors", 1);
A.3 regionProperties.H
-----------------------------------------------------------------
//Simple class to hold region information for coupled region
simulations
//SourceFiles regionProperties.C
#ifndef regionProperties_H
#define regionProperties_H
#include "IOdictionary.H"
#include "Time.H"
namespace Foam
{
/*-------------------------------------------------------------*\
Class regionProperties Declaration
\*-------------------------------------------------------------*/
class regionProperties
:
public IOdictionary
{
// Private data
public:
// Constructors
127
//- Destructor
~regionProperties();
// Member Functions
// Access
#endif
A.4 regionProperties.C
-----------------------------------------------------------------
#include "regionProperties.H"
// * * * * * * * * * * Constructors * * * * * * * * * * * * * //
// * * * * * * * * * * Destructor * * * * * * * * * * * * * * //
Foam::regionProperties::~regionProperties()
128
{}
// * * * * * * * * * Member Functions * * * * * * * * * * * * //
const Foam::List<Foam::word>&
Foam::regionProperties::fluidRegionNames() const
{
return fluidRegionNames_;
}
const Foam::List<Foam::word>&
Foam::regionProperties::solidRegionNames() const
{
return solidRegionNames_;
}
A.5 fluid/solveFluid.H
-----------------------------------------------------------------
if (finalIter)
{
mesh.data::add("finalIteration", true);
}
#include "UEqn.H"
#include "hEqn.H"
// PISO loop
for (int corr=0; corr<nCorr; corr++)
{
#include "pEqn.H"
}
if (finalIter)
{
mesh.data::remove("finalIteration");
}
A.6 fluid/UEqn.H
-----------------------------------------------------------------
// Solve the momentum equation
tmp<fvVectorMatrix> UEqn
(
fvm::ddt(U)
+ fvm::div(phi, U)
- fvm::laplacian(nu, U)
+ fvm::SuSp(DC, U)
);
129
UEqn().relax();
if (momentumPredictor)
{
solve
(
UEqn
==
fvc::reconstruct
(
(
- ghf*fvc::snGrad(rhok)
- fvc::snGrad(p_rgh)
)*mesh.magSf()
)
);
}
A.7 fluid/hEqn.H
-----------------------------------------------------------------
// Solving the energy equation
{
fvScalarMatrix TEqn
(
fvm::ddt(cp, T)
+ fvm::div(phi*fvc::interpolate(cp), T)
+ hs*4.0*exp(-pow(4.0*(T-Tmelt)/(Tl-
Ts),2))/Foam::sqrt(constant::mathematical::pi)/(Tl-Ts)
*fvm::ddt(T)
+ hs*4.0*exp(-pow(4.0*(T-Tmelt)/(Tl-Ts),2))/
Foam::sqrt(constant::mathematical::pi)/(Tl-Ts)*(U &
fvc::grad(T))
- fvm::laplacian(lamda/rho, T)
);
TEqn.relax();
TEqn.solve();
alpha = 0.5*Foam::erf(4.0*(T-Tmelt)/(Tl-Ts))+scalar(0.5);
cp = alpha*cpL+(1.0-alpha)*cpS;
lamda = alpha*lamdaL+(1.0-alpha)*lamdaS;
nu = alpha*nuL+(1.0-alpha)*nuS;
rhok = 1.0 - (beta*(T - Tl));
DC = DCl*Foam::pow(1.0-alpha,2)/(Foam::pow(alpha,3)+DCs);
}
130
A.8 fluid/pEqn.H
-----------------------------------------------------------------
{
volScalarField rAU("rAU", 1.0/UEqn().A());
surfaceScalarField rAUf("(1|A(U))", fvc::interpolate(rAU));
p_rgh.boundaryField().updateCoeffs();
U = rAU*UEqn().H();
phi = (fvc::interpolate(U) & mesh.Sf())
+ fvc::ddtPhiCorr(rAU, U, phi);
surfaceScalarField buoyancyPhi(rAUf*ghf*fvc::snGrad(rhok)
*mesh.magSf());
phi -= buoyancyPhi;
p_rghEqn.setReference(pRefCell, getRefCellValue(p_rgh,
pRefCell));
p_rghEqn.solve(mesh.solver(p_rgh.select
(pimple.finalInnerIter())));
p_rghEqn.solve
(
mesh.solver
(
p_rgh.select
(
(
oCorr == nOuterCorr-1
&& corr == nCorr-1
&& nonOrth == nNonOrthCorr
)
)
)
);
if (nonOrth == nNonOrthCorr)
{
// Calculate the conservative fluxes
phi -= p_rghEqn.flux();
131
// Correct the momentum source with the pressure
gradient flux calculated from the relaxed pressure
U -= rAU*fvc::reconstruct((buoyancyPhi +
p_rghEqn.flux())/rAUf);
U.correctBoundaryConditions();
}
}
#include "icoContinuityErrors.H"
p = p_rgh + rhok*gh;
if (p_rgh.needReference())
{
p += dimensionedScalar
(
"p",
p.dimensions(),
pRefValue - getRefCellValue(p, pRefCell)
);
p_rgh = p - rhok*gh;
}
}
A.9 solid/solveSolid.H
-----------------------------------------------------------------
if (finalIter)
{
mesh.data::add("finalIteration", true);
}
{
for (int nonOrth=0; nonOrth<=nNonOrthCorr; nonOrth++)
{
tmp<fvScalarMatrix> TEqn
(
fvm::ddt(rho*cp, T)
- fvm::laplacian(K, T)
);
TEqn().relax();
TEqn().solve();
}
Info<< "Min/max T:" << min(T) << ' ' << max(T) << endl;
}
if (finalIter)
{
mesh.data::remove("finalIteration");
}
132
A.10 solidWallMixedTemperatureCoupled.H
-----------------------------------------------------------------
//Mixed boundary condition for temperature, to be used by the
conjugate heat transfer solver.
//SourceFiles
solidWallMixedTemperatureCoupledFvPatchScalarField.C
#ifndef solidWallMixedTemperatureCoupled_H
#define solidWallMixedTemperatureCoupled_H
#include "mixedFvPatchFields.H"
namespace Foam
{
/*-------------------------------------------------------------*\
Class solidWallMixedTemperatureCoupledFvPatchScalarField
Declaration
\*-------------------------------------------------------------*/
class solidWallMixedTemperatureCoupled
:
public mixedFvPatchScalarField
{
// Private data
public:
// Constructors
133
const fvPatch&,
const DimensionedField<scalar, volMesh>&,
const dictionary&
);
// Member functions
134
//- Get corresponding K field
const fvPatchScalarField& K() const;
//- Write
virtual void write(Ostream&) const;
};
#endif
A.11 solidWallMixedTemperatureCoupled.C
-----------------------------------------------------------------
#include "solidWallMixedTemperatureCoupled.H"
#include "addToRunTimeSelectionTable.H"
#include "fvPatchFieldMapper.H"
#include "volFields.H"
#include "mappedPatchBase.H"
#include "regionProperties.H"
// * * * * * * * * * Constructors * * * * * * * * * * * * * * //
Foam::solidWallMixedTemperatureCoupled::
solidWallMixedTemperatureCoupled
(
const fvPatch& p,
const DimensionedField<scalar, volMesh>& iF
)
:
mixedFvPatchScalarField(p, iF),
neighbourFieldName_("undefined-neighbourFieldName"),
KName_("undefined-K")
{
this->refValue() = 0.0;
this->refGrad() = 0.0;
this->valueFraction() = 1.0;
}
Foam::solidWallMixedTemperatureCoupled::
solidWallMixedTemperatureCoupled
(
const solidWallMixedTemperatureCoupled& ptf,
const fvPatch& p,
const DimensionedField<scalar, volMesh>& iF,
135
const fvPatchFieldMapper& mapper
)
:
mixedFvPatchScalarField(ptf, p, iF, mapper),
neighbourFieldName_(ptf.neighbourFieldName_),
KName_(ptf.KName_)
{}
Foam::solidWallMixedTemperatureCoupled::
solidWallMixedTemperatureCoupled
(
const fvPatch& p,
const DimensionedField<scalar, volMesh>& iF,
const dictionary& dict
)
:
mixedFvPatchScalarField(p, iF),
neighbourFieldName_(dict.lookup("neighbourFieldName")),
KName_(dict.lookup("K"))
{
if (!isA<mappedPatchBase>(this->patch().patch()))
{
FatalErrorIn
(
"solidWallMixedTemperatureCoupled::"
"solidWallMixedTemperatureCoupled\n"
"(\n"
" const fvPatch& p,\n"
" const DimensionedField<scalar, volMesh>& iF,\n"
" const dictionary& dict\n"
")\n"
) << "\n patch type '" << p.type()
<< "' not type '" << mappedPatchBase::typeName << "'"
<< "\n for patch " << p.name()
<< " of field " << dimensionedInternalField().name()
<< " in file " << dimensionedInternalField().
objectPath()
<< exit(FatalError);
}
fvPatchScalarField::operator=(scalarField("value", dict,
p.size()));
if (dict.found("refValue"))
{
// Full restart
refValue() = scalarField("refValue", dict, p.size());
refGrad() = scalarField("refGradient", dict, p.size());
valueFraction() = scalarField("valueFraction", dict,
p.size());
}
136
else
{
// Start from user entered data. Assume fixedValue.
refValue() = *this;
refGrad() = 0.0;
valueFraction() = 1.0;
}
}
Foam::solidWallMixedTemperatureCoupled::
solidWallMixedTemperatureCoupled
(
const solidWallMixedTemperatureCoupled& wtcsf,
const DimensionedField<scalar, volMesh>& iF
)
:
mixedFvPatchScalarField(wtcsf, iF),
neighbourFieldName_(wtcsf.neighbourFieldName_),
KName_(wtcsf.KName_)
{}
// * * * * * * * * * Destructor * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * //
// * * * * * * * * Member Functions * * * * * * * * * * * * //
const Foam::fvPatchScalarField&
Foam::solidWallMixedTemperatureCoupled::K() const
{
return this->patch().lookupPatchField<volScalarField,
scalar>(KName_);
}
void Foam::solidWallMixedTemperatureCoupled::updateCoeffs()
{
if (updated())
{
return;
}
this->refValue() = nbrIntFld;
this->refGrad() = 0.0;
mixedFvPatchScalarField::updateCoeffs();
if (debug)
{
scalar Q = gSum(K()*patch().magSf()*snGrad());
void Foam::solidWallMixedTemperatureCoupled::write
(
Ostream& os
) const
{
mixedFvPatchScalarField::write(os);
os.writeKeyword("neighbourFieldName")<< neighbourFieldName_
<< token::END_STATEMENT << nl;
os.writeKeyword("K") << KName_ << token::END_STATEMENT << nl;
139
}
namespace Foam
{
makePatchTypeField
(
fvPatchScalarField,
solidWallMixedTemperatureCoupled
);
A.12 Pgradient/PGradient.C
-----------------------------------------------------------------
//Calculates the gradient for field p_rgh in each timestep as
post-processing
# include "fvCFD.H"
// * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * //
forAll(timeDirs, timeI)
{
runTime.setTime(timeDirs[timeI], timeI);
//Reading field
140
volScalarField p_rgh
(
IOobject
(
"p_rgh",
runTime.timeName(),
mesh,
IOobject::MUST_READ,
IOobject::AUTO_WRITE
),
mesh
);
tmp<volVectorField> tmp=fvc::grad(p_rgh);
PGrad=tmp();
//runTime.write();
PGrad.write();
}
return(0);
}
A.13 PGradient/createFields.H
-----------------------------------------------------------------
volVectorField PGrad
(
IOobject
(
"PGrad",
runTime.timeName(),
mesh,
IOobject::MUST_READ,
IOobject::AUTO_WRITE
),
mesh
);
141