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Investment Casting

Investment casting, a precision manufacturing method, produces complex metal parts with fine details. It involves creating a wax pattern, encasing it in ceramic, melting the wax, and pouring molten metal into the mold. This process ensures intricate shapes and is used in industries where precision is required. Altair Inspire Cast is a simulation software tailored for casting processes. It aids engineers in optimizing casting designs by predicting potential defects like porosity, shrinkage, and flow issues. By simulating and analyzing these factors, it enables efficient and cost-effective production of high-quality metal components in industries.

Computational Model

Meshing of the Model

The initial conditions are: Molten brass (liquid state) at 1406.15 K. The pouring velocity of the liquid metal is set at 1 m/s, while the temperature of the mold is 293.15 K. The boundary conditions are: the mold containing the cast, now placed in a room with an ambient temperature of 293 K. The heat transfer mechanisms at play are convection, from the molten metal to the mold and then from the mold to the surrounding air, along with conduction between the solidifying metal and the mold itself. The effect of radiation on the solidification process of the metal is assumed to be negligible.

Simulation of the basic model was done in Altair and the results were validated accordingly. The results of the simulations are presented here:

Temperature variation during Filling

Liquid Fraction variation during Filling

Temperature variation during Solidification

Liquid Fraction variation during Solidification

Design of Experiments (DOE)

A Design of Experiments (DOE) study involves systematically planning and conducting experiments to gather data in an efficient and structured manner. Its purpose is to explore relationships between variables, optimize processes, or make informed decisions based on empirical evidence. In this case, we have considered six factors and one output variable. Those six factors are: Angle, Height, Eccentricity, Depth, Outer Diameter and Fillet Radius. The output selected here is the time taken for solidification of the material.
An L18 orthogonal matrix is constructed using Taguchi Design to conduct DOE using Minitab 18.0 software. The levels considered for this scenario are shown below in the image. On completing the Taguchi design using the table shown below, we obtain a combination of the factors and their levels. Then, simulations are done for those combinations and the significant factors are found on completing Taguchi Analysis to the finalized orthogonal array. Regression modelof Multiple Linear Regression was implemented on the orthogonal matrix. Further, an optimization study was conducted to obtain the ideal conditions to obtain the fastest solidification with less defects during the casting. The optimization results denote that, the significant factors affecting the solidification time are: Height, eccentricity, depth and outer diameter. The optimized values of these significant factors are 18mm, 4mm, 3mm and 25mm respectively.

Shape Analysis

Shape analysis has been conducted based on the results from the previous studies and the cross section shape is changed from rectangular, square, circular and elliptical as shown below. Cross sectional area has been kept constant to ensure the volume of the cast remains same. We observed that the base of the cross section of the mold needs to be wider irrespective of its shape. However, manufacturing an elliptical or circular cross sectioned mold is a challenging task and it requires special techniques to achieve the expected results. So, it would be a wiser option to go with the rectangular cross section as it is easy to manufacture and can be customized to our needs without much effort and we can obtain better results with rectangular cross-sectional mold.

Fin.

Projects

All the projects I have been part of and have contributed in, over the past few years.