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Applied Thermal Engineering 73 (2014) 510e519

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Applied Thermal Engineering


journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/apthermeng

Simulation study on the centrifugal casting wet-type cylinder liner


based on ProCAST
Su-Ling Lu a, b, Fu-Ren Xiao a, Shuang-Jie Zhang b, Yong-Wei Mao c, Bo Liao a, *
a
Key Lab of Metastable Materials Science & Technology and College of Material Science & Engineering, Yanshan University, Qinhuangdao 066004, China
b
Hebei Key Laboratory of Material Near-Net Forming Technology and College of Material Science and Engineering of Hebei University of Science and
Technology, Shijiazhuang 050000, China
c
Shijiazhuang KINCON Internal Combustion Engine Parts Group LTD, China

h i g h l i g h t s

 The model for a horizontal centrifugal casting is established used ProCAST.


 The effects of technological parameters on defect area were investigated.
 The difference in coating thickness has a significant influence on the temperature filed.
 An optimized schedule was designed to guide the improvement of the actual process.

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The casting defects that appear the inside surface of a wet-type cylinder liner (WTCL), such as macro-
Received 11 March 2014 segregation and shrinkage holes, are important factors that affect the quality of the WTCL produced by
Accepted 29 July 2014 centrifugal casting. To reduce these defects, a model of centrifugal casting WTCL based on the ProCAST
Available online 7 August 2014
software was constructed in this study, and the simulated result was used to optimize the casting
process. The temperature field of the casting WTCL was simulated based on actual solidification, and the
Keywords:
solidification process and casting defect were analyzed. Results show that the simulated temperature
Wet-type cylinder liner
field is in accordance with the actual process and the casting defects appear in the final solidification
Centrifugal casting
Temperature field
zone and inside the sub-surface near the thick-wall side. These defects were later revealed on the surface
ProCAST software after machining. The factors that affect the temperature field and the solidification process, such as the
cooling-down method, mold structure, coating material, and coating structure, were also analyzed. Based
on these analyses, an improved method was proposed.
© 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction contains some defects that are revealed after internal machining,
resulting in the rejection of the product.
The wet-type cylinder liner (WTCL) is an important part of in- Casting defects, such as macrosegregation, shrinkage porosities,
ternal combustion engines. With the development of automobile and coarse-grained zone (Fig. 1(b) and (c)), are major defects that
industry, numerous WTCLs of different sizes have been produced to cannot be entirely eliminated by machining in the range of
meet the requirements of internal combustion engines with machining allowance, as shown in Fig. 1. Therefore, reducing the
different sizes [1,2]. The size precision and high properties of defect depth (H) and machining allowance (z) is a key technique to
WTCLs are necessary because WTCLs operate with secular cyclic reduce the scraps of the WTCL manufactured by horizontal cen-
loading [3,4]. A WTCL has a walled tube with unequal thickness as trifugal casting. The temperature field and solidification process of
shown in Fig. 1(a). A horizontal centrifugal casting process is WTCL during horizontal centrifugal casting must be analyzed.
generally employed to manufacture the cylinder liner's parts. Numerical simulation technology is widely utilized to simulate
However, WTCL manufactured by horizontal centrifugal casting the temperature field, solidification, segregation, and microstruc-
ture evolution during the casting process [5e8], so casting has
advanced from a non-visible to a visible process. Vertical centrif-
* Corresponding author. Tel.: þ86 335 8077110. ugal casting has also been investigated. The molding of fluid flow
E-mail addresses: lusuling0102@163.com (S.-L. Lu), cyddjyjs@263.net (B. Liao). has been examined [9,10], and the thermal solidification and

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2014.07.073
1359-4311/© 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
S.-L. Lu et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 73 (2014) 510e519 511

2. Description of the models

2.1. Geometric model

The horizontal centrifugal casting process for the production of


WTCL is shown in Fig. 2. The metallic melt of gray cast iron for
casted the WTCL was melted in the vacuum medium frequency
induction melting furnace, it's final chemical composition was
shown in Table 1, and the pouring temperature was about
1350 ± 20  C.
The flow behavior of the metallic melt during the horizontal
centrifugal casting process is complex and includes two stages:
channel flow and centrifugal flow. A geometric model of the hori-
zontal centrifugal casting process of WTCL was established and is
shown in Fig. 3. Before the metallic melt contacts the revolution
mold, the flow behavior of the metallic melt is channel flow, which
is a gravity-casting process. In this case, a mass acceleration field,
az ¼ g, is applied to each point of the liquid (Fig. 3) [18]. After the
metallic melt contacts the revolution mold, the metallic melt
moves with the revolution mold; the flow behavior of the metallic
melt then changes to centrifugal casting. In this case, the mass force
field has two components: gravity and rotational force. It can been
assumed that (1) the mold rotates with constant angular velocity
(u); (2) the z-axis moves upward; (3) the x-axis is the axis of
revolution, then, a field of mass acceleration, ax ¼ 0,
ay ¼ u2y  2u(w  uy), az ¼ u2z þ 2u(v þ uz) þ g, is applied to
each point of the liquid (Fig. 3).
However, ProCAST software cannot distinguish between the two
process of the gravity and centrifugal stages in one technology [19].
Therefore, the horizontal centrifugal casting flow process of WTCL
was factitiously divided into two parts, namely, channel flow and
centrifugal flow, as shown in Fig. 3. For the centrifugal flow simu-
lation, the flow simulation results of the channel flow of the area
and the flow rate of the section (I) are loaded to the centrifugal flow
model when the metallic melt comes in contact with the mold
(Fig. 3(d)).
The sizes of the mold, the coating, and the thermal insulation
materials utilized for the simulation of the original process are
listed in Table 2.

2.2. Mathematical models


Fig. 1. The shape and position of the defect in the cylinder liner. a) The schematic map
of defect, shape and side of the WTCL. b) Photos of the cylinder liner c) the magnified The following assumptions were established for the horizontal
shrinkage porosity in its sectioned surface of the WTCL machined. (In (a)), solid line centrifugal casting of WTCL.
outline is shown the shape of casting blank made by centrifugal casting, phantom
curves were shown the shape of machined part.).
(1) The incoming liquid metal is evenly distributed only on the
inlet of the centrifugal flow part to simulate the smooth
filling process of the channel flow part.
microstructure evolution behaviors of vertical centrifugal casting
have been explored [11e15]. However, horizontal centrifugal cast-
ing has not been studied with the aim of predicting the occurrence,
distribution, and size of casting defects although the molding of
fluid flow has been examined without thermal solidification
[16,17].
In this study, the filling and temperature field of horizontal
centrifugal casting of WTCL were simulated based on the ProCAST
software, and the temperature field and solidification processes
were also simulated during the cooling process. The factors that
affect the temperature field and solidification process were inves-
tigated by combining the results of the defect analysis and hori-
zontal centrifugal casting process of WTCL. Based on these
analyses, the processes of horizontal centrifugal casting were
optimized. It is expected that the results would help to reduce
scraps and improve the quality of WTCL manufactured by hori-
zontal centrifugal casting. Fig. 2. Schematic representation of the WTCL centrifugal casting process.
512 S.-L. Lu et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 73 (2014) 510e519

Table 1 Table 2
Chemical composition of cylinder liner W (%). Geometrical parameters data used in the simulation of original process.

Composition C Si Mn P S Cr B Geometrical parameter Value

Content 3.2 2.6 1.0 0.3 0.1 0.3 0.05 w1 e the coating thickness in the thick end 1 mm
w2 e the coating thickness in the thin end 1 mm
tt e the mold thickness in the thick end 28 mm
tm e the mold thickness in the thin end 30 mm
c e the thickness of the thermal insulation materials the thin end 1 mm
(2) The liquid metal is an incompressible Newton fluid.
(3) The inlet is on the inside surface, with one component of
inlet velocity parallel to the rotation axis and the other 2.3. Depth H of the centrifugal casting defect
component vertical to the rotation axis.
The shrinkage model of ProCAST software is based on gravity
The continuity and NaviereStokes equations employed for the and is thus unsuitable for calculating the location of the centrifugal
filling process of the two parts are as follows: casting defect. By contrast, shrinkage formation involves heat flow,
mass flow, and some other complicated phenomena; it is a gener-
Continuity equation ally accepted practice to simulate shrinkage porosity by pure
thermal calculations [21]. Therefore, the centrifugal casting defect
(such as pipe, shrinkage porosity, and coarse-grained zone) was
considered a zone within the closed loops formed by the isochronal
vu vv vw contours at a certain solidification time in this study.
þ þ ¼0 (1) Combining the results of temperature field simulation with the
vx vy vz
experimental observation of WTCL indicates that the volume of the
defect zone is approximately 4% of the total solidified volume
(Vd ¼ 4%V) as shown in Fig. 1(a).
NaviereStokes equation According to Guldin's rule,

Vd ¼ ∬ 2pyds ¼ A$y (4)


D
   
vðrFÞ ! where Vd is the volume of the defect zone, A is the area of the defect
þ V$ r V F ¼ V$ mVF þ Su  VP (2)
vt zone as shown in Fig. 1(a), and y is the distance traveled by the
center of gravity of the zone [22]. In this work, A is 3.5 cm2. The
!
where r is the density, F is the velocity component, t is the time, V maximum distance between the final cooling zone and the inner
is the velocity vector, m is the dynamic viscosity, Su is the sources wall of the cylinder liner defines the depth (H) of the centrifugal
into the momentum, and P is the pressure. casting defect. The influence of different parameters on H was
For heat transfer behavior during steel solidification, the summarized.
following equations are employed [20].
3. Boundary and initial conditions
 
dT
rc ¼ V$ kVT þ Q_ (3)
dt 3.1. Material properties

where c is the specific heat, T is the temperature, k is the thermal The material database of ProCAST software includes many
conductivity, and Q_ is an internal power source. industry-proven materials, such as metals and various sand- and

Fig. 3. Two parts of horizontal centrifugal casting of the WTCL model and flow simulation results. a) The channel flow part FE model b) the flow simulation results of the channel
flow part. c) The centrifugal flow part FE model d) the flow simulation results of the centrifugal flow part.
S.-L. Lu et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 73 (2014) 510e519 513

shell-casting materials. In this study, the mold is GG 20, the channel ambient temperature of the surrounding air and cooling
is sandesilica, and the coating is a type of sand. However, the water was approximately 20  C.
material performance parameters of the WTCL were not selected
from the material database. According to the chemical composition The actual process indicates that the internal surface of casting
(Table 1), the material performances, such as the enthalpy curve comes in contact with air. After filling, the temperature of the air
and the solidification path (i.e., the fraction of solid curve versus that comes in contact with the casting internal surface changes as
temperature), density, viscosity, and thermal conductivity, were time passes. Therefore, the internal surface of casting applies as a
computed automatically from thermodynamic databases in the variable ambient temperature.
ProCAST software. Therefore, the enthalpy curve, fraction of the
solid curve, density, viscosity, and thermal conductivity were (3) Initial conditions: The mold was preheated to nearly 150  C.
calculated based on the chemical composition. A liquidus temper- An initial temperature of 150  C was applied to the mold,
ature of 1195  C and solidus temperature of 1090  C were calculated coating, and thermal insulation material. An initial temper-
and utilized for the simulations. ature of 1300  C was applied to the casting. This temperature
represents the pouring temperature of the material used in
investment casting of WTCL. A casting speed of 1 kg/s was
applied to the channel flow part mode.
3.2. Boundary conditions and loading (4) Rotation speed of the mold: The function of rotation speed is
calculated from the following expression.
(1) Interface parameters: An interface heat transfer coefficient
(between the coating layer with the high-temperature cast-
sffiffiffiffiffi
ing and the coating layer with the mold) of 1000 W/m2 K was
G
applied to the model. An interface heat transfer coefficient of n ¼ 29:9 (5)
500 W/m2 K was applied between the mold and the casting
r0
with the thermal insulation materials, and 20 W/m2 K was
applied between coating with the thermal insulation where G is the coefficient of gravity in the formula and r0 is the
material. internal surface radius of the castings.
(2) Boundary conditions: According to the actual cooling process For cast iron, G generally adopts a range of 40e110. The speed of
(air cooling-water cooling-air cooling), the mold was cooled 1300 r/min was selected after G was calculated.
in air, with a convection coefficient of 62 W/m2  C applied to
the external cylindrical surface of the mold in the first 28 s of 4. Results and discussion
the process. Subsequently, the mold was cooled in water
with a convection coefficient of 5000 W/m2  C for approxi- The cooling processes of the melt for the actual production
mately 70 s. Lastly, the mold was cooled in air again. The of WTCL include four stages. The stages are as follows: (1)

Fig. 4. The filling process of the centrifugal flow model. a) t ¼ 0.3 s, b) t ¼ 1 s, c) t ¼ 8 s.


514 S.-L. Lu et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 73 (2014) 510e519

filling stage, which is approximately 8 s; (2) air cooling stage, 4.2. Casting temperature field simulation results
which is approximately 20 s; (3) water cooling stage, which is
approximately 70 s; and (4) final air cooling. The casting tem- Fig. 5(a) shows the temperature field simulation results after
perature field for the simulation was calculated according to cooling to 28 s; the figure includes filling of 8 s and air cooling of
these stages. approximately 20 s. Fig. 5(b) shows the temperature field simula-
tion results after cooling to 98 s; the figure includes filling of 8 s, air
cooling of approximately 20 s, and water cooling of approximately
4.1. Filling stage simulation results 70 s. Fig. 5(c) shows the temperatureetime curve of the different
location nodes during the casting cooling process. From Fig. 5(c),
As the melt comes in contacts with the cold mold wall, the when the mold rotation was stop at time 140 s, the temperature of
molten metal rapidly rotates with cold type. The full flow almost the casting inside is about 858  C, which closes to the experimental
spirals under the influence of the initial velocity in the axial di- temperature of 836  C. The results indicate that the simulated re-
rection as shown in Fig. 4(a). The temperature of melt tip is reduced sults are reliable.
to approximately 10  C when the time is 0.3 s. Simultaneously, the Combining Fig. 5(a) and (c) shows that the temperature field of
melt spiral flow broadens in the longitudinal direction with cen- WTCL appears “sandwich shaped” at t ¼ 28 s [23]. The temperature
trifugal force as shown in Fig. 4(b). As the filling process completes of the inside and outside layers is about 1180  C and that of the
at approximately 8.1 s, the temperature of the melt decreases intermediate layer is approximately 1200  C. The temperature of
slightly, whereas the temperature of the coating increases signifi- both ends is low, and the temperature of the area close to the thick
cantly as shown in Fig. 4(c). end is the highest. The difference in temperature in the casting
Fig. 4(c) shows that a small amount of heat is transferred to the section thickness direction does not exceed 20  C.
mold from the liquid metal during the filling process. The tem- When cooling time reaches 98 s (i.e., water cooling has
perature of the coating that came in contact with the liquid metal completed), the casting temperature of the two ends and the
increases rapidly, especially near the inlet. When the filling process outside layer is lower than that of the inside layer as shown in
completes (t ¼ 8 s), the temperature of the coating increases to Fig. 5(b) and (c). The outside layer is completely solidified. A high-
640  C and that of the internal surface of the mold increases to temperature region “A” exists near the thick end, and its temper-
170  C. The melt temperature decreases to 1250  C. These results ature remains above the solidus temperature. At this moment, the
indicate that the coating plays a significant role in hindering heat volume of “A” is approximately equal to Vd, which is nearly a
transfer and thus reduces the casting cooling rate during the early fraction of the casting defect of WTCL. Therefore, high-temperature
stage of the cooling process. region “A” is considered a multiple-defect zone, i.e., shrinkage and

Fig. 5. The casting temperature field simulation results. a) Casting temperature field distribution as 28 s. b) Casting temperature distribution as 98 s. c) The temperatureetime curve
of different locations nodes in the casting.
S.-L. Lu et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 73 (2014) 510e519 515

other residues formed in this region after casting cooling. Accord- attributed to the mold, coating, and thermal insulation material.
ing to the simulation results, the depth of thickness H is approxi- Therefore, the temperature field of the mold should be considered.
mately 7 mm. The difference in temperature in the zone along the
casting section thickness direction is small. These results indicate 4.3. Mold temperature field simulation results
that casting defects are most likely to form in the position that
exceeds the machining allowance of 4 mm after solidification. During the cooling process, the heat loss during casting is
Therefore, some casting defects can be revealed after machining. mainly transferred from the coating and mold; therefore, the
Comparison of the results of the simulation (Fig. 5) and those of changes in mold temperature directly affect the cooling of the
defect observation (Fig. 1) indicates that casting defects occur casting. Air cooling and water cooling are utilized to control the
nearly at the same location. These results show that the simulation cooling of the WTCL casting. The changes in the mold temperature
results of horizontal centrifugal casting are very credible and that field should be investigated to improve the cooling processes of
simulation with ProCAST can reveal the reason for the occurrence of WTCL because the different cooling processes have significant ef-
the casting defects. fects on the cooling temperature field of WTCL.
Fig. 5(c) shows the variation curves of temperature with the Fig. 6 shows the simulation result of the mold temperature fields
time of high-temperature positions in the casting. At less than 8 s, during the cooling process. The mold temperature increases as air
the temperature of the casting varies quickly because of the filling cooling finishes (t ¼ 28 s). The highest temperature of the inside
of the molten metal. At a temperature of 1090  Ce1195  C, the surface of the mold reaches 228  C, and the temperature of outer
temperature of the casting decreases gradually because of the surface reaches 170  C. The temperature of the mold is distributed
latent heat of the solidification release. During the entire process, non-uniformly, with the mold temperature of the thick end of the
the temperature of the casting outside decreases rapidly because of casting being higher than that of the thin end. These results are
contact with the coating; the temperature of the casting inside similar to those of the simulated casting temperature field. How-
decreases faster than that of the intermediate layer because of ever, during the water cooling process, the temperature of the mold
contact with hot air. The cooling rate of the two casting ends and is reduced rapidly from outside to inside; the temperature unifor-
the casting outer layer is faster than that of the inside layer because mity of the mold is improved.
of the heat of the casting transmitted through the thermal insu- As water cooling finishes, the outside temperature is reduced to
lation material at both ends. The cooling rate of the thin end is 60  C and the temperature of the mold's inside is reduced to 140  C.
faster than that of the thick end because of the larger surface to Moreover, the temperature distribution of the mold becomes sub-
volume ratio at the thin end. stantially uniform (Fig. 6(b)). These results show that the heat of the
The results above show that the emergence of casting defects is molten metal is transmitted outward uniformly during the water
strongly related to the cooling conditions, which, in turn, is cooling process. Comparison of the simulated results of the casting

Fig. 6. The mode temperature field simulation results. a) The mold temperature field distribution at 28 s. b) The mold temperature field distribution at 98 s. c) The temper-
atureetime curve of different locations nodes in the mode.
516 S.-L. Lu et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 73 (2014) 510e519

indicates that the locations of the positions with high temperature the revolution mold. However, the thick end of the casting stores
in the casting and mold are different. This result may be attributed more heat than the thin end as verified by the result where the
to the coating with low thermal conductivity as confirmed by the casting thick end has a higher temperature than the casting thin
simulated results of temperature changes of the positions in the end (Fig. 5(b) and (c)). This condition resulted in the mold tem-
mold and coating shown in Fig. 6(c). Fig. 6(c) shows the variation perature of the thick end increasing faster during the air cooling
curves of temperature with the time of the high-temperature po- process (Fig. 6(a) and (c)). Although the mold temperature becomes
sitions in the mold and coating. At less than 8 s, the temperature of uniform during the subsequent water cooling process (Fig. 6(b) and
the coating increases rapidly; the temperature of the mold also (c)), making the casting cooling uniform along the axial direction is
increases because heat transformation formed poured melt. At over difficult (Fig. 5(b) and (c)). Therefore, achieving uniform cooling of
8 s, the temperature of the coating begins to decrease, the tem- the casting is a key issue in controlling the position of the casting
perature of the mold continues to increase, and the temperature of defects. Mao et al. recommended increasing the mold thickness
the mold inside (near the coating) increases more quickly than that difference as an ideal method to improve temperature uniformity
of the mold outside. At over 28 s, the temperature of the mold and decrease the depth (H) of the casting defects [4]. However, the
outside decreases rapidly because of water cooling; however, the simulated results in the current study indicate that the cooling
temperature of the mold inside continues to increase. With the processes, mold size, and coating can affect the heat conduction of
increase in cooling time, the temperatures of the mold inside and the casting; therefore, numerous influencing factors, such as the
that of the coating decrease; the difference between the tempera- time of the water cooling, size of mold, thickness of the thermal
tures of the mold inside and outside decreases. However, the insulation materials, and coating thickness, were investigated.
temperature of the coating decreases gradually because of the heat Fig. 7 shows the simulated effects of these factors on the depth
release during casting solidification. When the time increases to (H) of the casting defects.
98 s (i.e., the water cooling finishes), the temperature of the mold The simulated results of the temperature field of the casting and
increases again, however, the temperature of the coating and mold show that the water cooling process has a significant effect on
casting decreases. This can be explained that heat transfers out- the temperature field of the mold and/or the casting (Figs. 5 and 6,
ward continuously from the solidified casting to the mold. respectively) and on the position of the casting defects. Therefore,
the starting time of the water cooling process (t1) was investigated
5. Process improvement and is shown in Fig. 7(a). The time (t1) in Fig. 7(a) begins from the
completion of the pouring time and equals the time of the first air
These results stated above indicate that the solidification pro- cooling. Fig. 7(a) indicates that the depth H of the casting defects
cess of WTCL casting begins from outside, where the coating and presents a low value when water cooling begins immediately after
mold come in contact because heat is transferred to the cold mold pouring is completed. With the increase in the starting time of
(Fig. 5(a) and (b)). Casting defects may occur in the middle of the water cooling, the value of H increases. When t1 is over 30 s, the
WTCL cast because the cooling rates of the two ends of the casting values of H decrease with the increase in t1.
are faster compared with that of the middle section and because a The simulated results of the temperature fields of the casting
small amount of heat inside the casting is lost because of the air in show that the distributions of the temperatures of the casting and

Fig. 7. The influence of different process parameters on the defect depth.


S.-L. Lu et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 73 (2014) 510e519 517

the mold present uniform states when pouring has just finished change the defect location [4]. Therefore, the effects of the differ-
(t1 ¼ 0 s; t ¼ 8 s) (Fig. 4(b)). In this case, the heat of the casting is lost ence (d) between two ends of the mold thickness (d ¼ tt  tm as
mainly along the direction of the mold during the water cooling shown in Fig. 3(d)) on the defect depth H of the casting were
processes when water cooling begins immediately after pouring. investigated in the present study as shown in Fig. 7(b). Fig. 7(b) also
Therefore, the temperature of the casting becomes relatively uni- shows that the defect depth H of the casting is reduced slightly by
form, the length of defect region “A” increases slightly, and the the increase in d.
value of H becomes small. With the increase in t1, the temperature As mentioned earlier, the heat of the casting is lost mainly along
differences at both ends of the casting and/or mold increase during the direction of the mold during the cooling stage. Given that the
the air cooling process (Figs. 5(a) and 6(a)) because the cooling rate thermal resistance of the mold is proportional to the thickness of
of air cooling is slower than that of water cooling and because water the mold based on the theories of heat transfer, the thermal
cooling retains the temperature differences between the two ends resistance of mold in the thick end of the casting is smaller than
and the middle part of the casting (Fig. 5(c)). This phenomenon that in the thin end. In the water cooling stage, the temperature of
results in the slight movement of casting region “A” toward the the outside surface of the mold is relatively uniform, and the heat
thick end and the length of defect region “A” being reduced. Hence, on the thick end of the casting can transfer quickly under small
the value of H increases. With further increase in t1 to over 20 s, the thermal resistance. As the result, the length of the casting defect
temperature field of the mold becomes uniform because the heat region “A” increases and the value of H decreases; meanwhile,
transmission in the mold is faster than that in air, such that the d increases. These results show that defect depth does not meet the
temperature difference between the two ends and the middle part demands (H < z) by adjusting parameters t1 and d and thus requires
of the casting and/or mold decreases. Hence, the length of defect further study.
region “A” increases and H decreases. However, the effect of t1 on The simulated results of the temperature field of the casting and
the value of H is limited because the decrement in H caused by the mold (Figs. 5 and 6) show that although the heat of the casting is
modified t1 is only 0.5 mm or less (Fig. 7(a)). Shortening the starting partially lost along the axial direction, the two ends of the mold
time of water cooling (t1) poses a significant inconvenience for play a role in affecting the temperature field uniformity of the
operation processes. Increasing t1 will increase the temperature of casting and mold. Although a thermal insulation material of 1 mm
the mold considerably, which will in turn affect the life of the mold. was used at the two ends between the casting and its mold, the
Therefore, in this study, t1 ¼ 20 s was adopted. large size of the two ends of the mold increased the heat loss of the
The results stated above indicate that the difference in the casting, especially for the thin-wall end. Therefore, the thickness of
temperatures of the thick-wall and thin-wall ends during water thermal insulation material c was also investigated as shown in
cooling increases and results in the final freezing zone being Fig. 7(c).
concentrated in the closed thick-wall end. The value of H thus in- The curve in Fig. 7(c) indicates that H is reduced by enhancing
creases. Mao et al. reported that the variation in mold thickness can the thickness of the thermal insulation materials in the thin end

Fig. 8. The temperature field of different D and the photos of the cylinder liner after redesigned. (a) D ¼ 0 mm (b) D ¼ 2 mm (c) D ¼ 1 mm (d) the photos of the cylinder liner after
redesigned.
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because the use of thick thermal insulation materials can prevent based on the analysis of the flow behavior of the metallic melt
heat loss in the thin end. Hence, the temperature difference be- during the horizontal centrifugal casting process. The mold filling
tween the two ends and the middle part of the casting decreases. and temperature field for the centrifugal casting simulation of a
This condition results in defect region “A” moving to the middle, wet-type cylinder liner (WTCL) were obtained in ProCAST. The
the length of region “A” being increased, and the value of H being temperature field of the simulated results and the defect of the
decreased. However, the contact area between the casting and the practical as-cast were compared. The results showed that ProCAST
thermal insulation materials is small, whereas the thermal resis- software is suitable for horizontal centrifugal casting simulations of
tance of the thermal insulation materials is large. As a result, the WTCL.
effect of the value of c on H is limited. As shown in Fig. 7(c), the The effects of the water cooling starting time, the difference in
decrease in H is only 0.3 mm with a thickness of c ¼ 3 mm. Fixing the mold wall thickness, the thickness of the thermal insulation
the thermal insulation materials in the mold is difficult with an materials, and the difference of the coating thickness of the defect
extremely thick c; thus, the thickness of the thermal insulation area were investigated with the temperature field obtained in
materials was set to 2 mm. ProCAST. The difference in coating thickness has a significant in-
The results stated above show that the parameters cannot fluence on the depth of the defect area of WTCL.
effectively improve the temperature field uniformity nor decrease The improvement solution to guide the actual casting processes
the defect depth H. Figs. 5 and 6 indicate that the temperature was obtained as follows: the difference in mold wall thickness was
variation in the coating is slower than that in the casting and the 16 mm, the thickness of the thermal insulation materials was 2 mm,
mold. This result indicates that the coating plays a very important and the difference in coating thickness was 1 mm when the cooling
role in affecting the temperature field uniformity of the casting. The method of air cooling for 20 s, water cooling for 70 s, and air cooling
effects of the structure of the coating on defect depth H and tem- for 20 s was adopted. Under these conditions, the final defect depth
perature field uniformity were further investigated as shown in was less than the machining allowance.
Figs. 7(d) and 8. The structure of the coating changes with the in-
crease in the thickness of the thin-wall ends, i.e., increasing the
thickness difference (D ¼ w2  w1) of the coating between two ends Acknowledgments
(w2 and w1 are shown in Fig. 3(d)).
Fig. 7(d) shows that the effects of thickness difference D of the This research is supported by Hebei Science and Technology
coating on defect depth H of the casting. Thickness difference D Support Program (13274202D). The authors wish to acknowledge
generates significant effects on defect depth H. When the coating the Institute of Metal Research for their technical support.
is of the same thickness (D ¼ 0 mm), defect depth H is approx-
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