A verification of the thermal stress analysis, including the furan sand mold, used to predict the thermal stress in castings

The restraint exerted on a casting by a furan sand mold on the casting and the contraction of the casting during cooling was dynamically and simultaneously measured using a device that we developed. The measurements were compared during cooling with thermal stress analyses. The thermal stress analyses were based on the representative mechanical models for the furan sand mold, i.e., the elastic and elasto-plastic models used in previous studies. The comparison demonstrated that the elasto-plastic model simulates the restraint force more accurately than the elastic model. In the thermal stress analysis, it was important to describe the development of inelastic deformation and the fracture of the sand mold. However, the simulated restraint force was still twice as large as the measured force even in the elasto-plastic model. This error is most likely attributable to using the temperature-independent mechanical properties of the furan sand mold and the mechanical model of the casting alloy, which neglected the viscoplasticity at high temperature in the thermal stress analysis.