Heat Transfer Model of Directional Solidification by LMC Process for Superalloy Casting Based on Finite Element Method

Abstract

With the rapid development of the aviation industry, the turbine blade, a critical component of the aeronautical engine, has come to be widely produced by liquid-metal cooling (LMC) process. A temperature- and time-dependent heat transfer coefficient was used to represent the heat convection between the shell and the cooling liquid, and an improved Monte Carlo ray-tracing approach was adopted to handle the boundary of radiation heat transfer. Unstructured mesh was used to fit the irregular shell boundary, and the heat transfer model of directional solidification by LMC process based on finite element method (FEM) was established. The concept of local matrix was here proposed to guarantee computational efficiency. The pouring experiments of directional solidification by LMC process were carried out, then simulation and experimental results were compared here. The accuracy of the heat transfer model was validated by the cooling curves and grain morphology, and the maximum relative error between simulation and experimental cooling curve was 2 pct. The withdrawal rate showed an important influence on the shape of solidification interface, and stray grain is liable to be generated on the bottom of platform at an excessive withdrawal rate.