Microstructural Simulation of Solidification Process of Spheroidal-Graphite Cast Iron

Abstract

This paper presents a new micro-macro approach for the thermo-microstructural behavior of the solidification process of an eutectic ductile cast iron. The thermal balance is written at a macroscopic level and can take into account both the structural component being cast and its mold. Models of nucleation and growth represent the evolution of the microstructure, following a multinodular solidification theory with independent nucleation of graphite and austenite and a dendritic growth of austenite. The resulting formulation is solved using a finite element discretization of the macro domain, in which the evolution of the microstructure is taken into account at the Gauss integration points. The quantitative agreement between experimental and computational values in terms of cooling curves is acceptable.