Abstract
The selection of the most appropriate casting gating system design is one of the most critical decision-making tasks in foundries as it is closely associated to the amount of air inclusions and surface defect concentration, which should be minimal in the final casting product to ensure superior quality and enhanced mechanical properties. Moreover, the design of the gating system influences the material and energy usage and consequently the cost of the sand casting manufacturing process. Therefore, its design should be thoughtfully considered and planned. In this investigation, Multi-Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM) is being coupled with Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations in order to select the optimal gating system design with respect to the sustainability of the process. Besides process energy, three additional criteria were used for the evaluation of the gating system performance, namely: air entrainment, surface defect concentration and mould cost. CFD simulations were performed to evaluate each one of the 6 gating system designs considered against each one the aforementioned criteria. The selection of the most appropriate gating system was performed using the Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS).
Highlights
Sand casting is one of the oldest and most widely used casting processes
Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) has found a lot of applications across a wide variety of casting processes ranging from traditional sand casting [2] to more contemporary methods, such as Low Pressure Die Casting (LPDC) [3] and the Constrained Rapid Induction Melting Single Shot Up-Casting (CRIMSON) technique [4]
An additional conclusion is that for all cases examined, rectangular cross sections are characterised by inferior performance compared to the corresponding circular ones. The objective of this investigation is the development of a Multi-Criteria Decision-Making framework for the evaluation of the sustainability performance of casting system designs
Summary
Sand casting is one of the oldest and most widely used casting processes. During this process, alloys are heated up to a temperature slightly higher than their melting point and subsequently poured into the cavity of a sand mould; Michail Papanikolaou et al / Procedia Manufacturing 43 (2020) 704–711 during the solidification process, the liquid metal obtains the desired shape and eventually, the final cast component is removed from the mould. There are two main physical processes involved in sand casting, namely: (a) mould filling and (b) solidification. The evolution of the computing power as well as the numerical modelling techniques has rendered the numerical investigation of casting processes feasible. In this context, CFD has found a lot of applications across a wide variety of casting processes ranging from traditional sand casting [2] to more contemporary methods, such as Low Pressure Die Casting (LPDC) [3] and the Constrained Rapid Induction Melting Single Shot Up-Casting (CRIMSON) technique [4]. Computational models being capable of predicting the formation of defects such as oxide films, air entrainment and porosity have been integrated to the existing casting modelling software, as reported by Reilly et al [5]
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