Computer-aided cooling curve analysis of A356 aluminum alloy

Abstract

Computer aided cooling curve analysis (CA-CCA) is very useful in the foundry industry for easy and fast evaluation of a variety of properties. Typical applications include the prediction of the temperatures and amounts of different phases appearing during solidification and monitoring of the quality of melt in terms of Si- modification, grain refinement, inoculation, and graphite spheoridization. The use of cooling curve analysis can be extended to many other areas of solidification also, assuming the calculated values are reasonably accurate. The calculation of zero curve, which is vital in cooling curve analysis, offers many problems however. In this study, an attempt was made to investigate the problems of zero curve calculation and a new method is suggested to minimize calculation errors. An in-house developed computer program was used for a complete analysis of aluminum alloy A356 to determine the latent heat and solid fraction values.