Numerical simulation of filling and solidification of permanent mold castings

Filling of a mold is an essential part of the permanent mold casting process and affects significantly the heat transfer and solidification of the melt. For this reason, accurate prediction of the temperature field in permanent mold castings can be achieved only by including simulation of filling in the analysis. In this work we model filling and solidification of a casting of an automotive piston produced from an aluminum alloy. Filling of the three-dimensional mold is modeled by using the volume-of-fluid method. Fluid mechanics and heat transfer equations are solved by a finite element method. Comparisons of numerical results to available experimental data show that the formulated model provides a solution of acceptable accuracy despite some uncertainty in material properties and boundary and initial conditions. This implies that the model can be a viable tool to design permanent molds.