Use of virtual solidification program to promote directional solidification and minimize gross and micro porosity in castings

gnanamurthy K, Muralidhar B K, Basalalli V K

Transactions of the American foundry society, Volume 109, Pages 1-20, 2001

Abstract: A virtual solidification program based on explicit finite difference method has been developed to study solidification as it progresses in a 3D metal-mold field. The simulation uses fourier conduction equation in the finite form and special techniques to handle latent heat as well as exothermic behavior of sleeves. Formation of gross shrinkage as may be viewed in a dynamic radiography, and prediction of micro porosity by study of cooling curves and application of niyama criterion are presented in this work. The results obtained in these solidification studies do not approve castings marginally cleared by experimental results, making the simulation method a shade safer. The program is user friendly and is carried out in a personal computer or laptop.

Keywords: Casting, Directional solidification, Porosity, Virtual solidification.