Simulations and experiments of mould filling in lost foam casting

Abstract

ABSTRACT A new method for mould filling calculation of lost foam casting (LFC) was developed based on the main hypothesis, which assumes that every point on the melt-pattern interface moves in the radial direction. The value of the normal velocity is calculated by an empirical formula, which is the function of the degree of vacuum, pattern density, pouring temperature, metallic static head, etc. At a given time step, every interface point moves to a new position, and all the points form the shape of the melt-pattern interface. Based on the new position of the interface and the given velocity of the interface cell, the fluid flow and the temperature distribution of the molten metal can be calculated during the mould filling process of LFC. The calculated results were validated by experiments.