Cathryn Karashin

Purdue University

Biomedical Engineering

Modeling Direct Chill Casting of Aluminum Alloys

Introduction

Aluminum has a wide range of applications, including beverage cans, planes, trains, automobiles, boats, and spacecraft. The direct chill (DC) casting process is used to cast a significant amount of these aluminum alloys. The sump depth during start up in DC casting has a strong correlation to the defects that can occur later in the casting process. Through modeling this casting process we hope to have a better idea of the thermal and mechanical behavior of aluminum ingots during DC casting.

Project Objectives

  • To model heat transfer and solidification phenomena in direct chill casting using PHYSICA software
  • To study sump shapes during start up as basis for future stress analysis

Numerical Approach

  • Modeling transport phenomena and solidification behavior of aluminum using PHYSICA software, which employs a cell-centered finite volume method with an unstructured mesh.
  • Analyzing phase front boundaries in simulations to determine sump depth

Research Findings


Cubetemp25side: Temperature plot of cooling
occuring in the ingot from
the mold on the side only.
Elapsed time is 500s with
temperatures measured in Kelvin.
Cubetemp25bot: Temperature plot of cooling
occuring in the ingot from
the mold on the side and the stool on the bottom.
Elapsed time is 500s with
temperatures measured in Kelvin.

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