Simulation of Investment Casting: Coupling of Contact and Heat Transfer Calculation between Casting and Mold during Solidification

摘要

Numerical simulation and optimization of industrial processes has been applied with success in many fields of industry. Our simulation software, CASTS, focusses on investment casting processes and has been successfully tested many times in simulating the Bridgman process. An important aspect of investment casting simulation is calculation of heat transfer between mold and casting during the solidification process. For the modeling of the processes, a description of the heat transfer requires the coupling of the temperature, solidification and stress/strain analysis. This paper introduces an algorithm for calculation of contact which takes into account how gap formation impacts heat transfer. The new algorithm implemented in CASTS is applied to an existing investment casting, an AISi7Mg camera casing. Starting from the CAD model of the camera casing, a finite element enmeshment with subsequent automatic generation of the ceramic mold is required. The calculation of preheating of the ceramic mold is followed by a coupled temperature, solidification and stress/strain simulation.