Calculation of the Temperature Field of the Solidifying Ceramic Material EUCOR

Abstract

EUCOR, a corundo-badelleyit material, which is not only resistant to wear but also to extremely high temperatures, is seldom discussed in literature. The solidification and cooling of this ceramic material in a non-metallic mould is a very complicated problem of heat and mass transfer with a phase and structure change. Investigation of the temperature field, which can be described by the three-dimensional (3D) Fourier equation, is not possible without the employing of a numerical model of the temperature field of the entire system—comprising the casting, the mould and the surroundings. The temperature field had been investigated on a 350×200×400 mm block casting—the so-called “stone”—with a riser of 400 mm, and using a numerical model with graphical input and output. The computation included the automatic generation of the mesh, and the successive display of the temperature field using iso-zones and iso-lines. The thermophysical properties of the cast, as well as the mould materials, were gathered, and the initial derivation of the boundary conditions was conducted on all boundaries of the system. The initial measurements were conducted using thermocouples in a limited number of points. The paper provides results of the initial computation of the temperature field, which prove that the transfer of heat is solvable, and also, using the numerical model, it is possible to optimise the technology of production of this ceramic material, which enhances its utilisation. The results are complemented with an approximated measurement of the chemical heterogeneity of EUCOR.