Characterisation of the heat penetration in shape castings for different combinations of melt and mould materials

Abstract

A dimensionless number is derived to describe the relationship between the thickness of the heat penetrated mould material and the solidified metal layer during the solidification of a plate. The underlying model includes the effects of heat diffusivities, thermal diffusivities and latent heat release. The combination of these parameters gives a more meaningful interpretation of the solidification process than the single parameters alone. The dimensionless number is most useful to estimate the necessity of corrections for shape effects in the calculation of solidification times using modulus methods. The number also allows the thermal similarity of different combinations of mould materials and casting metals to be compared.