An investigation on the solidification and porosity prediction in aluminium casting process

Abstract

Air porosity becomes an issue in casting that needs attention. To create superior-quality castings, it is crucial to carefully consider the parameters of the casting for negligible air porosity. The manuscript presents a study of porosity with the filling and solidification process inside the mould cavity where flow is turbulent using a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) approach by Ansys Fluent. An Ansys Fluent simulation model has been created and validated using the existing experimental research. This model investigates the variation in solid aluminium (about 100% Al) filled from the base of the mould cavity as a function of pouring temperature and pouring velocity. The relationship between porosity and casting parameters has been investigated and it is used to forecast a better estimate for the casting parameters with minimum porosity. It is observed that the top surface of the casting, which is linked to the bottom surface of the riser, has the maximum porosity and when the pouring velocity is close to 500 mm/s, the porosity value is extremely low.