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A-SQUARED

CASTING INNOVATIONS

CASE STUDY - OIL PAN CASTING

During production runs, it was found that an Aluminium alloy sand cast Oil Pan (see figure 1) exhibited some castings with cold shuts and metal-mould type defects. The defect when present could be found on the circumferential surfaces of a pipe like section which runs through the internal cavity of the casting (see figure 2). Casting process simulation was utilised as a means to gain insight into the occurrence of these defects. THE 3D MODEL The already available CAD data of the casting from the customer was imported into a CAD package (namely SolidWorks). The specific casting method was then added to this through additional CAD modeling to exactly replicate the pattern/tool in use. The total geometry was then exported from the CAD package and transferred to the simulation program (namely MAGMASOFT) THE SIMULATION After importing the geometry into the simulation program, a suitable mesh was generated. The mesh acts to divide the geometry into individual elements to enable the numerical calculations of the simulation to be performed. The density of mesh used is of significant importance in obtaining an accurate result. A dense mesh with many elements results in good resolution of the casting geometry and typically more accurate results will prevail. A dense mesh however leads to a large computational effort and therefore longer simulation run times. Hence awareness is required in mesh generation to achieve the degree of accuracy required in as short a time frame as practical to get to that result. With the mesh generated to the desired density, the specific process definitions were then applied. These included cast metal type, pouring temperature, pouring time, moulding materials used and moulding aid materials (chills, filters etc). Finally the appropriate heat transfer coefficients were added to capture the boundary conditions between the different material types. A complete filling and solidification simulation of the arrangement was then run. THE RESULTS Using a cut away view, an initial study of Air Pressure results on filling revealed a significant build up of pressure on the upper surface of the pipe section (see figure 3). This result was then correlated to the same cut away view of filling on temperature (see figure 4). An air pocket can be seen on the pipe like surface and is evident for approximately 50% of the total filling time. It was deduced from this that obviously the filling occurs at a rate which is more rapid than the air trapped can permeate through the sand mould. As the head pressure from the filling mould cavity increases, so to does the pressure on air trapped in the mould. Gradually the air permeates through the sand. Further simulations were then conducted with adjustments to both the pouring temperature and the pouring time. These were intended to represent the typical operating envelope of the process. This revealed that when a combination of lower pouring temperature was combined with slower filling, low temperature metal formed quickly within the pipe section which mixes with the trapped air as the pipe section fills. This was the cause of the defects reported in the production castings and remedial action was then instigated. PROJECT HOURS TAKEN CAD Hours: Simulation Hours: 12 16

Figure 1 - CAD representation of Oil Pan casting.

Figure 2 cut away view exposing pipe section.

Figure 3 - air pressure result of filling simulation.

The density of mesh used is of significant importance in obtaining an accurate result.

Figure 4 - temperature result of filling simulation.