Iranian Journal of Materials Science and Engineering

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In this investigation, α 2-D Finite Volume Method (FVM) with unstructured triangular mesh is developed to simulate the mould filling process. The simulation of fluid flow and track of free surface is based on the Marker And Cell (MAC) technique. This technique has capability ofhandling the arbitrary curved solid boundaries in the casting processes. In order to verify the computational results of the simulation, a thin disk plate with transparent mould was tested. The mould filling process was recorded using a 16mm high-speed camera. Images were analyzed frame by frame, in order to tracking of free surface and filling rate during mould filling. Comparison between the experimental method and the simulation results has shown a good agreement.

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In this investigation a new model was developed to calculate gas pressure at the melt/foam interface (Gap) resulting from foam degradation during mould filling in the Lost Foam Casting (LFC) process. Different aspects of the process, such as foam degradation, gas elimination, transient mass, heat transfer, and permeability of the refractory coating were incorporated into this model. A Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) code was developed based on the numerical technique of the SOLution Algorithm- Volume Of Fluid (SOLA- VOF) utilizing model, for the simulation and prediction of the fluid flow in the LFC process. In order to verify the computational results of the simulation, a thin plate of gray iron was poured into a transparentfoam mould. The mould filling process was recorded using a 16mm high-speed camera. Images were analysed frame by frame, in order to measuring foam depolymerization rate and the gap volume during mould filling. Comparison between the experimental method and the simulation results, for the LFC filling sequence, has shown a good agreement.

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In the present work, a model was proposed to predict the thermal history during rapid solidification (RS) of metal droplets in the gas atomization process. The classical theory of heterogeneous nucleation was based on Newtonian heat flow and enthalpy method. Solving the governing numerical equations by the finite difference method (FDM) gave up the opportunity of analyzing the temperature-time history of the droplets during cooling in the RS process. Here, cooling in the liquid state, nucleation and recalescence, segregated solidification, eutectic solidification and cooling in the solid state were considered. To verify the model, the gas atomization of Al-4.5% Cu alloy was studied and the results were compared with the Shukla's model [1]. Convincing agreement was obtained between the predicted undercoolings and the experimental results reported previously.

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This article examines the Weibull statistical analysis that was used for investigating the effect of melt filtration on tensile properties and defects formed inside the casting. Forming and entrapping of double oxide films have been explained by using the context of critical velocity of melt in the runner. SutCast software results were used to examine the amounts of the velocity of melt as such. SEM/EDX analysis is used to observe the presence of double oxide films in the fracture surfaces of the tensile specimens. The article goes on to propose that castings made with foam filters with smaller pores show higher mechanical properties and reliability due to higher Weibull modulus and fewer defects

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The combined influence of both melt filtration and cooling rate on the microstructure features and mechanical properties of A356 cast alloy was studied. A step casting model with five different thicknesses was used to obtain different cooling rates. The effect of melt filtration was studied by using of 10 and 20 ppi ceramic foam filters in the runner. Results showed that secondary dendrite arm spacing decreased from 80 μm to 34 μm with increasing cooling rate. Use of ceramic foam filters in the runner led to the reduction of melt velocity and surface turbulence, which prevented incorporation of oxide films and air in the melt, and consequently had an overall beneficial effect on the quality of the castings. A matrix index, which is the representative of both SDAS and microporosity content, was defined to consider the simultaneous effect of melt filtration and cooling rates on UTS variations. Also, the fracture surface study of test bars cast using 10 and 20 ppi ceramic foam filters showed features associated with ductile fracture.