Numerical Simulation Of The Temperature Field And Investigation On The Parameters For Plasma Arc Melting Of Titanium Alloy

Based on the ANSYS software, a finite element model for analyzing the temperature field of Plasma Arc Melting with a water-cooled copper crucible has been set up. With this model, the changes of the temperature fields of the melt and crucible have been calculated for TC4 alloy. The result showed that, the temperature of the melting pool where on the surface center is the highest. The temperature of the ingot where contacts with the copper crucible is the lowest, the temperature of the copper crucible is lower than 600℃. The change of temperature is big in the begining of melting. After a period, the temperature field reaches the steady state. The temperature gradient is very large in the ingot everywhere in the initial period of the melting process. The biggest temperature gradient appeares in the skull when the melting reached steady state and the temperatue of the melt pool is almost uniformity. The theoretical result coincides with experimetals about the skull size.The paper also studied the influence of the melting power and charge mass on the temperature of melt pool, the thickness of skull, the melting time and the consumption of energy. The results indicated that, the melt temperature increases nonlinearly with the increase of the melting power. The melt temperature decreases linearly with the increase of the charge mass. The consumption energy decreases nonlinearly with the increase of the melting power. The consumption energy increases linearly with the increase of the charge mass. The consumption energy per unite mass decrease nonlinearly with the increase of the charge mass. Therefore, a suitable parameter for PAM process is increasing the charge mass and the melting power to the maximum if it is possible. Then more energy can be reduced and the size of skull can be minimized.