Mould Filling Simulation

Benchmark Validation using FLUENT

Nitin Pathak, Anil Yadav and PRADIP DUTTA

Department Of Mechanical Engineering
Indian Institute Of Science, Bangalore
Layout of presentation:

ƒ Introduction: Mould Filling

ƒ Problem Description
ƒ Past Attempts to solve Benchmark Mould Filling Problem
ƒ Free Surface Modelling used in models
ƒ Brief Description of VOF method
ƒ Choice of Interface Tracking Schemes
ƒ Results and Discussion
ƒ Conclusion
ƒ References
Introduction: Mould Filling

¾ Mould filling: An essential part of Casting Process

• Involves diverse fluid flow with multiple transient free-surface boundaries.

• Affects significantly the heat transfer and solidification of melt.
• Accurate prediction of temperature field in the casting can be achieved only
by including simulation of filling process.
• Affects species distribution and macrosegregation with in Casting.

¾ Plays a major role to determine the final quality of Casting

• Experimental evidence [1-2] shows that the final strength of Casting could be
increased depending upon the filling behaviour alone.
• Care must be taken to avoid splashing of molten metal on the sides of mould.
• Splashing & free surface turbulence may introduce oxide film inclusions, air
entrapment and other casting defects.
Introduction: Mould Filling

¾ Extreme difficult to analyze the process experimentally.

• Require tracking of rapidly moving metal/air interface within the mould.

• A further complicating factor is the fact that typical industrial parts have
complicated geometries.

¾ Necessity for Numerical Simulation

• Numerical simulation offers a powerful and cost effective way to study the
effectiveness of filling process and different die designs.
• Inherent complexity of the processes involved, namely , interrelated fluid
flow and thermal affects coupled with phase change.
• Provides a means of understanding the casting behaviour within the mould
and let designers optimize the overall process.
 Problem Description:
B. Sirrell, M. Holliday and J. Campbell, “The Benchmark Test 1995, in: M. Cross,
J.Campbell (Eds.), Modelling of Casting, Welding and Advanced Solidification
Processes VII, The Minerals, Metals and Materials Society, London, (1995) pp. 907-913

• The test case is a benchmark from VIIth Conference Pressure Inlet

on Modelling of Casting, Welding and Advanced Outer Mould
Solidification Processes (MCWASP VII). Surface
(Sirrel et al 1995)
Outlets
• Benchmark consists of filling stages of simple plate
(200 X 100 mm) through a tall sprue with bottom-
gated running system.
• The properties of Aluminium and Sand are used in Mould
the numerical study [3]. Cavity

• Initially, air is present in the mould at ambient

temperature and liquid metal enters the mould Runner
cavity at temperature Tinlet = 700 °C.
 215 245
19.2

220

10
95

180

50 30

• A stagnation pressure boundary condition (Pinlet = 1000 Pa) is used at the sprue entrance
to simulate the constant level of metal.

• The outlets are kept at atmospheric pressure for air to escape out from mould as filling
progresses.
Past Attempts to Solve Benchmark Mould Filling Problem:

Name and year Basic features

Barkhudarov and Hirt Computational study using CFD code FLOW-3D
(1995) - Free surface modelling : FAVOR, VOF
J.F. Hetu and F. Ilinka Finite Element Algorithm for 3D simulation of mould filling
(1999) - Tracking of free surface using Level-Set Approach

Lewis and Ravindran Finite Element simulation of metal casting

(2000)

J.H. Jeong and D.Y.Yang Marker and Cell (MAC) method and adaptive grid refinement
(2004) method

Numerical model for simulation of liquid/gas phase flow.

Tavakoli et al. - Free surface effects are calculated using VOF
(2006) - Addition of limited compressibility to the gas phase
- Model permits simulation of free surface flow without using outlets
Free Surface Modelling used in models:
Name and year Basic features
Bellet and Chenot Lagrangian scheme: Mesh continuously deforms, mesh
(1993) boundaries coincide with free surface.
Hwang and Stoehr Marker and cell (MAC) method: Marker particles
Lagrangian
(1987) assigned to a particular fluid track its motion. Method

Hirt and Nichols Volume of fluid (VOF) Method: defines VOF fraction
(1981) function F that indicates the fractional amount of fluid
present at a location.
- Uses fixed grid of computational cells.
- Easily implemented in general purpose flow codes.
MAC Method
Luoma and Voller
(2000) Simulated mould filling process using VOF method
and its variants.
Tavakoli et al.(2006)
Present Attempt with VOF Method: Luoama and Voller
FLUENT - Consideration of air as a secondary phase (2000)

- Outlets are provided for air to escape

Brief Description of VOF method:
• The VOF formulation relies on the fact that two or more fluids (phases) are not
interpenetrating.
• For each additional phase, volume fraction of that phase is introduced in
computational cell.
• α q : qth fluid’s volume fraction in the cell
αq = 0 : the cell is empty (of qth fluid)
αq = 1 : the cell is full (of qth fluid)
0 < α q < 1 : the cell contains the interface between qth fluid and other fluids
• The variables and properties in any given cell are representative of mixture of
phases, depending upon the volume fraction values.

ρ = α 2 ρ2 + (1−α 2 ) ρ2

• All other properties (e.g. viscosity) are calculated in this way.

VOF method (contd..)
Volume Fraction Equation
∂ (αq ρq ) +∇.(αq ρq vGq ) = 0 ∑ αq =1
n
n
ρ = ∑ α q ρq ∂t q =1
q =1

Momentum Equation
∂ ⎛⎜ ρ vG ⎞⎟ +∇.( ρ vv
GG ⎡ ⎛ G GT ⎞ ⎤ G G
) =−∇p +∇.⎢ μ ⎜ ∇v +∇v ⎟ ⎥ + ρ g + F
∂t ⎝ ⎠
⎣ ⎝ ⎠⎦

Energy Equation
∂ ⎛⎜ ρ E ⎞⎟ +∇.( vG(ρ E + p)) =∇.(k ∇T ) + S
∂t ⎝ ⎠ eff h

∑ αq ρq Eq
n
Source term
E= q =1

∑ αq ρq
n

q =1
Choice of Interface Tracking Schemes:

Actual Interface Shape Geometric Reconstruction Donor Acceptor Scheme

Scheme

Geometric Reconstruction Scheme

• Represents the interface between fluids using a piecewise linear approach.

• Most accurate in FLUENT and applicable for general unstructured meshes.

• Assumes that the interface between two fluids has a linear slope within each cell
and calculates the advection of fluid through the cell faces.
Choice of Interface Tracking Schemes (contd..)

Donor Acceptor Scheme

• Identifies one cell as a donor of an amount of fluid from one phase and another
(neighbour) cell as the acceptor of same amount of fluid.

• Amount of fluid that can be convected across a cell boundary is limited by minimum
two factors:

1. Filled volume in donor cell 2. Free volume in acceptor cell

• The interface orientation is either horizontal or vertical, depending upon direction of

volume fraction gradient of phase.

Euler Explicit Scheme and Implicit Scheme treat the interfacial cells either
completely filled with one phase or the other.

Geometric Reconstruction Scheme adopted for present simulation

 Results
&
Discussion
Filling Stage Simulation: 0.24 s

FLOW-3D Simulation
Hirt et al. (1995)
Sirrell et al. (1995)

• Experimental results for the filling sequences were

obtained using a radiographic technique that includes
the visualization of flow pattern using real time X-ray.

• Metal enters into sprue through a pouring basin of

height 40 mm.
FLUENT Simulation
Filling Stage Simulation: 0.50 s

FLOW-3D Simulation
Hirt et al. (1995)
Sirrell et al. (1995)

J.F. HETU & F. ILINCA FLUENT Simulation

(1999)
Filling Stage Simulation: 0.74 s

FLOW-3D Simulation
Hirt et al. (1995)
Sirrell et al. (1995)

J.F. HETU & F. ILINCA FLUENT Simulation

(1999)
 Filling Stage Simulation:
• Most of the numerical studies don’t consider the presence of air initially within the
mould and use VOF which is based on single fluid algorithm.

• Flow of air in the void region is not included in the simulation obtained using FLOW-3D.
It is assumed that the air escapes out through the porous sand mould keeping the pressure
constant.

• Air is considered as secondary phase in the simulation done with FLUENT. Constant
Pressure Outlets are provided on the top of plate.

• Simulation results obtained using FLUENT are compared with published experimental
and numerical studies [3-6] at different times.

• The snapshots represent the two dimensional shape of free surface in the center of plate.
• Predicted filling time: FLUENT ≈ 1.92 seconds.
FLOW-3D ≈ 1.83 seconds.
Experimental Study ≈ 2.00 seconds
Filling Stage Simulation: 1.00 s

FLOW-3D Simulation
Sirrell et al. (1995) Hirt et al. (1995)

J.F. HETU & F. ILINCA FLUENT Simulation

(1999)
Filling Stage Simulation: 1.24 s

FLOW-3D Simulation
Sirrell et al. (1995) Hirt et al. (1995)

J.F. HETU & F. ILINCA FLUENT Simulation

(1999)
Filling Stage Simulation: 1.50 s

FLOW-3D Simulation
Sirrell et al. (1995) Hirt et al. (1995)

J.F. HETU & F. ILINCA FLUENT Simulation

(1999)
Filling Stage Simulation: 1.74 s

FLOW-3D Simulation
Sirrell et al. (1995) Hirt et al. (1995)

J.F. HETU & F. ILINCA FLUENT Simulation

(1999)
Filling Stage Simulation:

• A comparison is shown with numerical

1.24 s
study using VOF simulating liquid/gas flow.

• Air entrapment is observed in the runner part

of mould and it remains till the filling is

1.50 s
completed.

• However, in the numerical studies based on

single fluid VOF and FLOW-3D, the cavity

1.74 s
fills completely as filling progresses.

Tavakoli et al. FLUENT

(2006) Simulation
Conclusion:

• A numerical study is performed demonstrating the capability of commercial CFD

solver FLUENT to model mould filling during casting process.

• An Implicit Volume of Fluid (VOF) based algorithm is employed for simulating

the metal/air interface during filling process.

• Snapshots of the predicted metal/air interface are compared with published

experimental and numerical studies.

• A good qualitative agreement is obtained for the profiles of metal/air interface.

 References:

1. J. Campbell, Castings (London, Butterworth Heinmann, 1991), 27-85.

2. J. Campbell, Thin Wall Castings, Materials Science and Technology, 4(1988), 194-214.
3. B. Sirrell, M. Holliday and J. Campbell, “The Benchmark Test 1995, in: M. Cross,
J.Campbell (Eds.), Modelling of Casting, Welding and Advanced Solidification Processes
VII, The Minerals, Metals and Materials Society, London, (1995) pp. 907-913
4. Casting Simulation: Mould Filling and Solidification – Benchmark Calculations Using
FLOW-3D, M.R. Barkhudarov and C.W. Hirt, Flow Science Inc.
5. A Finite Element Method for Casting Simulations, Jean-Francois and Florin Ilinca,
Numerical Heat Transfer, Part-A, Vol. 36, pp. 657-679, 1999.
6. Numerical simulation of liquid/gas phase flow during mould filling, Rohallah Tavakoli,
Reza Babaei, Naser Varahram and Parviz Davami, Comput. Methods Appl. Mech. Engrb,
Vol. 196, pp. 697-713, 2004.
7. Finite element analysis of filling stage in die-casting process using marker surface
method and adaptive grid refinement technique, J.H. Jeong and D.Y. Yang, Int. J. Numer.
Meth. Fluids, Vol. 44, pp. 209-230, 2004.