Experimental and simulation study of solidification of commercial pure aluminium by sand casting

Abstract

This paper presents an experimental and numerical study of the solidification process of commercial pure Aluminum to estimate the shrinkage defects. The numerical solution has been carried out using a program written in a FORTRAN language by adopting the explicit finite difference method using [3-D] transient heat conduction differential equation. Several factors were taken into consideration in this system, such as solidification parameters. The model was built up to calculate the solidification parameters: gradient temperature and solidus time. After the simulation of a specified sample, solidification parameters were calculated. This is done to show the variations in solidification parameters along the mid surface for each casting were drawn using MATLAB. The shrinkage cavities have been predicted from the results of calculating the solidus time. The form of a closed-loop within the solidus time contours was taken because of the criterion for this kind of shrinkage. By comparison, between the sliced samples and simulated diagram, the simulation program showed a good ability of cavity prediction of location and extension. Also, the program developed to give a good response to the cooling direction and variation which was confirmed by adding a copper chill in the casting mold of one sample.