Thermal analysis strategy for Al-7Si-Mg alloy sand-casting modelling

ABSTRACT Simulations of manufacturing processes typically rely on commercial or publicly available material databases. In the casting process, additives such as grain refiners and eutectic Si modifiers can affect the properties of molten metal during solidification. However, these effects are not always represented in the material’s thermophysical characteristics. This study differentiates the simulated filling and defect indicators of a aluminium alloy from different material databases. Further, to account the effect of the grain refiner, thermal analysis data from a Al-7Si-Mg alloy with 0.2 wt.% Al-5Ti-B is used to create a corrected alloy that minimises the difference between numerical and experimental results. Results indicate that minor differences in thermophysical properties can affect misrun risk and filling temperatures. The corrected alloy more accurately represents heat release during phase transformation and reduces the temperature error from 7°C to 4°C. Additionally, it more accurately represents shrinkage, with the exception of some localised defects.