Numerical Simulation Of Casting Thermal Stress Based On ANSYS And InteCAST

As the temperature field numerical simulation technology in the casting process isgrowing more and more sophisticated, the analysis of stress field simulation for enterpriseis urgently needed. The thermal stress analysis of the casting process can not only simulatethe solidification process of liquid metal, but also simulate defects like shrinkage porosity,deformation, and crackle caused by a non-uniform distribution of temperature and stressconcentration, provide the scientific support for practical production. Nowadays, theresearch of simulation on stress field of casting process mainly relies on commercialsoftware developed by foreign countries, such as ANSYS, ABAQUS.The method frequently used for thermal stress analysis of the casting process withinour country is FDM/FEM, which fully uses the results of FDM method in researchingtemperature field, and extends the advantage of FEM method in stress field research in thesame time. Because of the complexity of casting and mold, the resistance from mold tocasting is ignored in the research process, which leads to the mutual effect between castingand mold not well handled.Based on the FDM/FEM method of researching thermal stress in the casting process,a method of contact element model for processing the mutual effect between casting andmold is mentioned in this article. Choosing the classical stress frame specimen as theresearch object, using casting simulation software called InteCAST to calculate thetemperature field in the casting process, self-developing the FDM/FEM temperatureconverting module, transforming the result of temperature field calculated by InteCASTinto FEM temperature load file, and loading it into the FEM model of ANSYS in order toanalyze the stress of the casting.In the module of temperature converting of FDM/FEM, problems on key technologysuch as model localization, temperature transmission, file transfer are well addressed. Asimple casting is used to calibrate the temperature converting module, so that a moreaccurate result is achieved, which indicates that the self-developed module is suitable forthe temperature converting between InteCAST and ANSYS, and can be perfectly used in stress analysis.In ANSYS, use contact element to process the mutual effect between casting andmold, and deactivation element to simulate the shakeout process after the solidificationprocess. Apply the thermal stress analysis to the classical stress frame specimen. Use postprocessor to carefully compare the calculation result between contact element model andfree shrinkage model. The practical pouring experiment of stress frame specimen verifiesthe thermal stress result calculated by contact element model gets closer to the realpouring situation, which means a more accurate simulation result is presented.