Simulation of heat flow in aluminum sand casting

Abstract EN

This paper deals with the study of heat flow in a T-shaped aluminum casting in sand mould, in order to contract the design process envelope to be integrated with foundry practices concurrently. A two-dimensional non-linear numerical analysis of transient heat transfer during the complete cycle of unit thick slice of casting was performed using the finite differences method and the MATLAB Rel.6.1 package. The numerical simulation was carried out on model and constant physical material properties, simplified sets of boundary and initial conditions, were introduced in the model due to the lack of information regarding the real casting process in foundry.

Uniform initial temperatures distribution in sand and alloy were assumed, for case of casting already infused in the mould.

Due to axisymmetry, only the right half of the model was simulated to reduce analysis.

The effect of thermal radiation and thickness of outer boxes of mould on the process were neglected. The results of temperature, cooling rate and temperature gradient distributions in the aluminum casting and mould during the solidification process were shows that the geometry of the section influence the regions at which solidification starts and ends.

Meanwhile the heat flow-related properties shows that, the last solidified regions could be the most probable locations of defects. The results obtained show concrete agreement with the previous works, that reflected the defects criteria and demonstrated the behaviour of the system logically.