Numerical Simulation Of Solidification Structure Of Al-Si Alloy

Solidification structure has an important influence on the performance of casting. In the past, the method of physical experiment was applied to the research of controling the solidification structure generally, however, a great deal of time and efforts should be put while using this method. so it is limited in the practical application. With the improvement of metal solidification theory and the rapid development of computer technology used in materials science and metallurgy, it has become possible to simulate the solidification structure accurately with computer technology.The CA-FE model was built through coupling the finite element and cellular automaton method. The finite element method was used to calculate macro temperature, and the cellular automaton method was used to simulate solidification microstructure with coupling the macro temperature calculation. In microstructure simulation, the nucleation adopts the continuous nucleation model based on Gaussian distribution, and the growth adopt the extended KGT model which fit complex alloy expanded from binary alloy. The three-dimensional solidification structures of Al-Si alloy was simulated by CA-FE model with hot verification test. In addition, the effects of primitive composition, nucleation parameters, casting conditions and the mold on solidification structures were analysised.The results show as follows:(1) The simulated results can accurately reflect the distribution, proportion, size of equiaxed grain and columnar grain,and can describe the grain growth well in the solidification process, so the CA-FE model is a effective model to simulate the solidification structure.(2) Reducing primitive composition of Si element and increasing undercooling are conducive to the development of columnar grains, but increasing nucleation density is conducive to the development of equiaxed grains, and can fine grains.(3) Raising the casting temperature, the proportion of columnar grain will increase, and the grains become coarse obviously,but the effect of the cooling intensity outside the mold on solidification structure is slight.(4) Enlarging the thickness of the mold or using the mold with strong cooling capacity, the proportion of columnar grain will increase. While using the Silica Sand mold with weak cooling capacity, the solidification structure were composed with all equiaxed grains and without columnar grain.