A NUMERICAL SIMULATION OF TRANSPORT PHENOMENON FOR THE CASTING OF AA6111 PLATE USING HORIZONTAL SINGLE BELT PILOT CASTER

摘要

The Horizontal Single Belt Casting (HSBC) process is viewed as a potential substitute for the Direct Chill (DC) process. Based on its low energy requirements and promising productivity vs DC casting, this technology is capable of producing green Near-Net Shape (NNS) metallic strips/plates of thicknesses up to 15 mm. The paper presents the optimum operating parameters for the production of AA6111, 250 mm wide and 4 mm thick plate. A Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) study of the HSBC process was conducted using ANSYS Fluent 14.5 software, in order to evaluate the dynamics of fluid flow from the delivery system onto the moving belt, so as to achieve uniform thickness and a good surface finish of the cast material. The microstructural study is also conducted, in order to determine the quality of the cast plate.