Abstract
The author-proposed skeletal sand mold, which mainly includes a shell, air cavities and a truss support structure, has been experimentally proven to be very useful in controlling the cooling of casting at local areas and at different periods of the casting process. The modeling and simulation of the casting process using a skeletal sand mold were systemically analyzed. Complicated casting/mold and mold/air boundaries, and the thermal and mechanical behavior of the skeletal sand mold during the casting process were highlighted. A numerical simulation of the casting process of a stress frame specimen using a skeletal sand mold was performed. The temperature, stress and displacement fields of the casting and skeletal sand mold were obtained and compared with those using a traditional sand mold. The simulated results were validated with experiments. Using the skeletal sand mold, the cooling rate of the casting can be greatly improved due to the significant heat release from mold surface to environment. The residual stress and deformation of the casting can be reduced because of the decreased stiffness of this kind of mold. Although the skeletal sand mold is susceptible to cracking, it can be avoided by filleting in the conjunctions and increasing the shell thickness.
Highlights
The key process of casting is the solidification of a liquid metal inside a mold regardless of the mold material and molding method
The results showed that the cooling of the casting was greatly improved compared with the usage of traditional sand molds
The casting and skeletal sand mold were meshed into tetrahedron elements, as mm mm spacing was designed using a software developed by Shuangguan et al
Summary
The key process of casting is the solidification of a liquid metal inside a mold regardless of the mold material and molding method. Kang et al [6] proposed the PSIRC (post-solidification intensive riser cooling) method to achieve fast and even cooling of heavy steel castings. These methods are limited to certain casting methods or alloys. Shangguan et al [14] presented an additive manufacturing-driven mold design for castings, the skeletal sand mold design, which mainly includes a shell layer, functional cavities and a lattice support structure. The modeling and simulation of the casting process based on the skeletal sand mold were investigated in a broad view, which would serve a guidance for the research of modeling and simulation corresponding to this kind of new mold design. A case study about the simulation of a typical stress frame casting formed in a skeletal sand mold was analyzed to unveil their features of heat transfer, stress evolution and deformation
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