Study On Structure And Property Of The Casting Copper Water Jacket With An Embedded Pipe

Copper water jacket is a kind of cooling equipment applied in metallurgical furnaces. Itcan protect the metallurgical furnace and extend its service life due to the excellent coolingcapacity. In this paper, Cu/Ni and Cu/Monel water jacket materials were prepared by sandcasting, then the interface structure and property of the ingots prepared at different pouringtemperatures were analyzed. The filling and solidification of the Cu/Monel water jackets bysix kinds of casting processing were simulated and some possible defects were also predicted.The Cu/Monel water jackets with industrial sizes were prepared by three raining pouringprocess and the structure and property of the matrix and interface were studied. The mainconclusions are as follows:The structure and property of Cu/Ni and Cu/Monel water jackets casting at differentpouring temperatures were analyzed. The results show that the thickness of diffusion layerincreases and the interface micro-hardness increases as the pouring temperature increasesfrom1100℃to1300℃, while the shear strength increases first and then reduces. When thepouring temperature is1200℃, Cu/Ni and Cu/Monel water jackets get the best interfaceshear strength, which is162Mpa and199MPa, respectively. Furthermore, at the pouringtemperature of1200℃, the Cu/Monel water jacket gets better microstructure and shearstrength at the interface, because the melting point of Monel alloy is closer to that of Cu thanNi, which results in more fully diffusion.The filling and solidification of the Cu/Monel water jackets with the size of1058mm×300mm×76mm were simulated for six kinds of casting processing. The results show thatthe fluctuation, spattering, turbulence and vortex flow during melt filling process occur inProcess I (vertically placed and bottom gating), Process II (vertically placed and anti-showergating) and Process IV (horizontally placed and bottom gating) with the uneven velocitydistribution. In addition, the temperature distribution is inhomogeneous. There is a lowtemperature region between the pipes. However, the velocity field of Process III (verticallyplaced and shower gating), Process V (horizontally placed and shower gating) and Process VI(horizontally placed and porous-shower gating) is even, and the temperature field is relativelyhomogeneous. Solidification occures from the wall to the core part of the ingots in Process I,Process II and Process IV and some isolated liquid regions are found below the riser andbetween the pipes. However, the final solidification region exists below the pouring holes andthe surface of the ingots in Process III, Process V and Process VI. Although the centralizedhole is found near the embedded pipes, the shrinkage cavity and porosity are vanished due to the the feeding of the raining-pouring gating system.The structure and property of Cu/Monel water jackets with the size of1058mm×300mm×76mm were studied. The results show that the gapless rates of ingots cast by Process1(vertically placed and shower gating), Process2(horizontally placed and shower gating) andProcess3(horizontally placed and porous-shower gating) are94.5%,95.5%and98.9%,respectively. Furthermore, the thickest interface diffusion layer and the widest transitionalzone of micro-hardness are located in the ingots cores. The maximum shear strength of175Mpa,162MPa and189MPa and the minimum shear strength of52MPa,47MPa and80MPa, respectively, are achieved for the ingots prepared by process1, process2and process3.It is concluded that the Cu/Monel water jacket prepared by Process3possesses the bestcomprehensive quality.