Numerical simulation of heat transfer and fluid flow of molten metal in MMA–St copolymer lost foam casting process

In this study, a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code was developed to calculate the filling pattern using volume of fluid (VOF) algorithm with donor–acceptor method for free surface simulation. This algorithm has been modified to include the pressure of the gas produced from foam degradation. For this purpose a heat transfer model and 2D foam degradation model were developed. In heat transfer model, radiation and conduction between foam and molten metal; and convection between gas and molten metal were considered. In order to evaluate the results of simulation, a bench scale casting apparatus was assembled and the casting was conducted in a transparent mold. The effect of several parameters such as coating thickness, foam density and vacuum level on the gap temperature, gap pressure and filling speed was studied with the developed software. It was found that the simulated results are in good agreement with experimental results.