Numerical Simulation Of Casting Thermal Stress Based On The MATLAB Platform Using Finite Element Method

Since the1970s, the fact that using information technology as the guide to promotethe traditional casting industry, had became an important trends of modern castingtechnology. The widely applications of computer simulation technology in the castingindustry, had became not only a prerequisite for high quality production, but also the maindirection of modern casting development.Through the numerical simulation of thermal stress during casting solidification,engineers can predict and analyze the deformation, cracks and residual stress before actualcasting pouring, which provides scientific bases to prevent defects caused by stressconcentration, optimize the casting process, ensure dimensional accuracy requirements offinished castings, improve the mechanical quality of castings and so on. Currentlysimulation of casting thermal stress is still the research focus of casting process simulationand the research challenges of macro-simulation studies.At present, the study of domestic casting thermal stress simulation mostly use foreigncommercial finite element analysis software, such as ANSYS, MARC, ADINA andABUQUS to conduct FDM/FEM integrated research. Admittedly, this will help us toimitate and even explore the basic ideas and methods of casting thermal stress numericalsimulation. However, the foreign blockade of key technologies and the urgent demands ofthe domestic enterprises, determine the fact that casting thermal stress simulation mustwalk the way to the specialized software with completely independent intellectualproperty rights. Therefore, it is necessary to develop the proprietary professional castingthermal stress simulation software.This study closely combined the cutting-edge research and the actual castingprocess, walked the way to the specialized software with completely independentintellectual property rights based on FEM and the MATLAB. Developing program basedon the MATLAB can avoid the bottleneck of the complex matrix calculation caused by theFEM programming and improve the efficiency of development. This study used themature commercial software InteCAST to simulate the temperature distribution, and taken the temperature distribution as the temperature load to simulate casting thermal stress bythermal stress analysis simulation program based on FEM and the MATLAB. This studyconducted the research of the3D casting thermal stress numerical simulation based onFEM and the MATLAB, and successfully developed the casting thermal stress numericalsimulation program, which can be used to calculate the casting residual stress, simulate thecasting deformation, and predict the generation of the casting thermal cracking tendency.Finally, In order to validate the algorithm and program, a typical specimen of stressframe as numerical example had been used in this study. Compared with the simulationresults of commercial software ANSYS, the results of this study is in good agreement. Atthe same time, compared with the actual casting castings results, the study found that thecalculated stress concentration region is the real casting fracture zone. Comparison testsshowed that the presented algorithm and program can be used to well predicate the castingdeformation and the thermal stress concentration. The program by this study laid a solidfoundation of developing commercial FEM casting thermal stress simulation software, sothis study not only has important theoretical significance, but also has good applicationprospects.