Flow simulation and solidification phenomena of AC4CH aluminum alloy in semi-solid forging process by explicit MPS method

Abstract

Semi-solid forging (SSF) is a powerful manu- facturing technology to fabricate near-net shaped products in automotiveindustries.DuringSSFprocess,thefillingbehav- ior and solidification process of AC4CH aluminum alloy is presented in this paper. The explicit MPS method program solving Navier-Stokes equation is coupled with heat transfer and solidification has been used to predict the filling pattern and temperature distribution of semi-solid material (SSM). The non-Newtonian rheological model was used as the con- stitutive equation of SSM. In this study, numerical analysis of SSF was carried out in box cavity with various flange thickness (4, 8, 12 and 16 mm) and corresponding exper- iments were undertaken for AC4CH aluminum alloy with solid fraction less than 0.5. The numerical results of SSM filling pattern and solidification phenomena in flange were validated with the experimental results. During solidifica- tion process, flow calculation was stopped and only thermal calculation was carried out. The shrinkage defect was well predicted near the lower mid area of the box cavity with flange thickness 16 mm.