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Simulation of casting complex shaped objects using SPH

Article · January 2005

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 Shape Casting: The John Campbell Symposium Edited by Murat Tiryakioglu and Paul N. Crepeau
TMS (The Minerals, Metals, & Materials Society), 2005

SIMULATION OF CASTING COMPLEX SHAPED OBJECTS

USING SPH

P.W. Cleary1 , J. Ha1 , M. Prakash1 and T. Nguyen2

1
CSIRO Mathematical and Information Sciences, Private Bag 10, Clayton South MDC,
Vic 3169, Australia
2
CSIRO Manufacturing and Infrastructure Technology, Preston, Victoria 3072, Australia

Keywords: SPH, high pressure die casting

Abstract

The geometric complexity and high fluid speeds involved in High Pressure Die Casting
(HPDC) combine to give strongly three dimensional fluid flow with significant free surface
fragmentation and splashing. A Lagrangian simulation technique that is particularly well
suited to modelling HPDC is Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH). Materials are ap-
proximated by particles that are free to move around rather than by fixed grids, enabling
the accurate prediction of fluid flows involving complex free surface motion. Four examples
of SPH simulated HPDC flows are presented, ranging from zinc casting of a door lock plate
to aluminium casting of a full engine rocker cover. These show unprecedented detail in the
fluid free surfaces, particularly in the extent of fragmentation and void formation. SPH has
other attractive features for the prediction of casting, including easy prediction of shrinkage,
feeding, some forms of porosity generation and surface oxide formation. Flow predictions
coupled to heat transfer and solidification are validated using short shots. The bulk fea-
tures of the final solid castings are in good agreement with the predictions. These results
combine to demonstrate that SPH modelling of HPDC has now reached a level where both
isothermal and thermal simulations can be performed in reasonable computation times for
large scale automotive castings and provide a good degree of predictive accuracy.

Introduction

HPDC is an important process in the manufacturing of high volume and low cost com-
ponents for the automotive, household products and electronics industries. Liquid metal
(generally aluminium, magnesium or zinc) is injected into the die at high speed (30 to 100
m/s) and under high pressure through complex gate and runner systems. The geometric
complexity of the dies lead to strongly three dimensional fluid flow with significant free
surface fragmentation and splashing. The order in which the various parts of the die fill
and the positioning of the air vents are crucial to forming homogeneous cast components
with minimal entrapped voids. This is influenced by the design of the gating system and
the geometry of the die. Numerical simulation offers a powerful and cost effective way to
study the effectiveness of different die designs and filling processes, ultimately leading to
improvements to both product quality and process productivity, including more effective
control of the die filling and die thermal performance.
317
A simulation technique that is proving to be very effective at modelling these HPDC flows
is Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamic (SPH) (see [1] for a review of the method). It is
a Lagrangian (grid-free) method for modelling heat and mass flows and is well suited to
simulating the complex splashing free surface flows found here. In SPH, materials are
approximated by particles that are free to move around rather than by fixed grids or meshes.
The particles are moving interpolation points that carry with them physical properties, such
as the mass of the fluid, its temperature, enthalpy, density and any other properties that
are relevant. The inter-particle forces are calculated by smoothing the information from
nearby particles in a way that ensures that the resultant particle motion is consistent with
the motion of a corresponding real fluid, as determined by the Navier-Stokes equations.
SPH was developed over the past two decades initially for astrophysical applications [1]
and was extended to incompressible enclosed flows by [2]. Examples of other applications
include heat conduction [3], natural convection in a cavity and Rayleigh-Benard convective
instability [4] and high pressure die casting [5].
SPH has advantages for modelling some die casting:
• Complex free surface and material interface behaviour, including fragmentation, can
be modelled easily and naturally.
• The Lagrangian framework means that there is no non-linear term in the momentum
equation, thus the method handles momentum dominated flows very well.
• Complicated physics such as multiple phases, realistic equations of state, compress-
ibility, solidification, fracturing, porous media flow, electro-magnetics and history
dependence of material properties are easier to implement.
The ongoing development of SPH for HPDC and its validation using water analogue experi-
ments has been reported in [6, 7, 5]. Good quantitative agreement between SPH simulations
and water analogue experiments for gravity die casting was also reported [8]. In this paper,
we describe the use of SPH in 3D to predict the filling of four industrial components and
examine the accuracy of the SPH solutions by comparison to short shots experiments.

The SPH method

SPH is a particle based method for modelling coupled fluid flows, solid structure deformation
and heat transfer. The particles represent discretised fluid or solids that move around in
response to the fluid or solid stresses produced by the interaction with other particles.
Importantly, SPH does not use any fixed grids or meshes to track the fluid and calculate
the fluid velocities. It uses an interpolation kernel to smooth the values of any information
held by the particles to give smooth continuous interpolated fields (eg. smooth density or
pressure fields from the discrete values of fluid density and pressure at the particles). For
each particle b its properties are mass mb , position r b , density ρb and velocity v b . h is known
as the interpolation length and controls the size of the interpolating kernel W (r, h) which
is a spline based function. This allows smoothed approximations to the physical properties
of the fluid to be calculated from the discrete particle information.
The SPH continuity equation from [1, 2] is:
dρa

= mb (va − vb ) ∇ Wab , (1)
dt b
where the position vector from particle b to particle a is rab = ra − rb and Wab = W (rab , h)
is the interpolation kernel evaluated for the distance |rab |. The sum is over all particles b
within a radius 2h of r b . The SPH momentum equation used is from Cleary [4]:
318
 dva
 P Pa  ξ 4 µa µb vab .rab 
b
=− mb + − ∇a Wab + g . (2)
dt b ρ2b ρ2a ρa ρb (µa + µb ) r2ab + η 2
where Pa and µa are pressure and viscosity of particle a and vab = va − vb . Here η is a small
parameter used to smooth the singularity at rab = 0. g is the gravity vector. The first two
terms involving the pressure correspond to the pressure gradient term of the Navier-Stokes
equation. The next term involving viscosities is the Newtonian viscous stress term.
SPH is a compressible method which is used near the incompressible limit by choosing
a sound speed that is much larger than the velocity scales in the flow. This quasi-
incompressible limit is actually what happens with real fluids. The equation of state,
giving the relationship between particle density
  ρ and fluid
 pressure, is:
γ
P = P0 −1 (3)
ρ0
where P0 is the magnitude of the pressure and ρ0 is the reference density. For water or
liquid metals the exponent γ = 7 is used. This pressure is then used in the SPH momentum
equation (2) to give the the particle motion. The pressure scale factor P0 is given by:
γ P0
= 100 V 2 = c2s . (4)
ρ0
where V is the characteristic or maximum fluid velocity. This ensures that the density
variation is less than 1% and the flow can be regarded as incompressible.
The simulation progresses by explicitly integrating the system of ordinary differential equa-
tions (1, 2) and any secondary equations such as the energy equation [5]. SPH simulations
can now be computationally large, up to 3 million particles on moderate speed single pro-
cessor workstations. They can be performed for very complex boundary geometries taken
from either CAD surface descriptions.

Predicted Filling of Industrial Parts

SPH simulations of the filling of four of industrial components are presented here. The
filling patterns provide information about potential sites of porosity formation. These can
then be used as inputs for developing improved gate, runner and venting systems.

Rocker Cover

The engine rocker cover is about 750 mm x 250 mm in area and has a section thickness of
about 3 mm. A skewed tangential runner system is used to feed liquid aluminium through
three long gates with heights of 2 mm and gate speeds of around 12 m/s. The particle size
used for this simulation was 1.25 mm. This is the geometrically largest part that has so far
been simulated using SPH. Figure 1 shows the filling of this rocker cover. The long gates
have a combined area that is similar to the runner cross sectional area, so the fluid does
not accelerate much when passing through the gates in comparison with the many other
high pressure castings. The lower gate speed results in somewhat reduced splashing and
fragmentation of the fluid upon entry into the die (see frames at 50 and 90 ms).
The complex stepped contours of the die combine with the diverging of the flow from the
gates leading to large long lived void areas (see filling state at 150 and 200 ms). This is
essentially the result of the diverging flow from the gate being unable to maintain a uniform
front, so fluid is not able to flow into the more protected regions of the die produced by
the steps in the shape. Note that there is also clear evidence of preferential race tracking
of fluid around the perimeter of the rocker cover (see frames at 150 and 200 ms).
319
video Figure 1: Filling of an engine rocker cover with fluid coloured by speed.

Differential Cover

Here, the filling of an automotive differential cover is presented. The differential cover is
about 250 mm x 250 mm in area and has a section thickness of about 6.5 mm. Liquid
aluminium is fed into the die cavity through the curved gates that are 1.5 mm high. The
particle size used in this SPH simulation is 0.75 mm. When the cavity is completely filled,
the total number of particles is about 900,000.
Figure 2 shows the filling pattern. Aluminium enters the die cavity through the four gates
attached to a conventional tangential runner system with shock absorbers. After entry
into the die cavity, two of the streams quickly merge leaving three main stream moving
directly away from the gate following the contours of the part and with long lasting voids
in between. At 20 ms, some leading fragments of liquid begin to collect in the circular
structure on the right of the die (when viewed from above). By 30 ms, the fluid streams
merge around the middle of the dies with the leading material having reached the far side
of the die opposite the runner. From here it spread sideways and progressively fills the sides
and flow backwards towards the gate. Significant amounts of fragmented fluid are now seen
to collect in the raised “tower” on the left side of the die (again when viewed from above).
320
video Figure 2: Filling of differential cover with the fluid coloured by speed.

By 50 ms there has been significant back filling and the rear third of the die is completely
filled. The transition region between the fast flowing streams moving away from the gate
and the back filling fluid occurs where the fluid colour (representing speed) abruptly changes
from yellow to blue. The fluid in the blue slow moving region has a low void fraction. The
tower structure is substantially filled as is the base plate on the opposite side. The last
remaining area to be filled is the central void region closest to the runner system.

Electronic Housing

Next we present the prediction of the filling of an electronic housing. It is about 66 mm

x 83 mm in area and has a section thickness of about 3 mm. Liquid aluminium is fed
into the die cavity through two long orthogonal side gates of height 1.3 mm feeding from a
central runner. The particle size used was 0.64 mm. The filling is shown in Figure 3. Fluid
enters the die cavity through two gates attached to the asymmetric Y-shaped runner. The
dominant flow is through the gate attached to the straighter arm of the runner on the far

321
video
Figure 3: An electronic housing filled from a Y shaped runner (coloured by speed).

side of the die (as shown from the view in Figure 3). Due to lower flow resistance the metal
preferentially fills the vertical side walls around the rim of the housing above the gates.
By 8.2 ms, metal is flowing into the main housing as jets inclined at around 30 degrees
below the rim. The leading material is very fragmented. Already a large elliptical void is
being surrounded by fluid caught between the race tracking fluid on the rim, fluid deflected
down by the 90 degree bend in the rim (at the back right corner) and the 30 degree angled
jet. Much of the air in this void will be trapped and compressed into the casting to generate
porosity in this region. A similar behaviour is observed on the other side (not visible in
this view). By 13.6 ms, the leading spray of metal has reached the opposite corner of
the die which is just becoming solidly filled as the back filling part of the process begins.
The elliptical raised structure at the front of the die is substantially filled and is taking
form. The voids on either side of the 30 degree inclined jets below the gates are essentially
unchanged from the earlier stages of the filling.
By 19 ms, the back flow has substantially filled the die. Again the transition from yellow
to blue shows where the incoming fluid decelerates as it encounters the more slowly moving
surface of the back filling fluid. Some flow through the vents on the right side of the die can
be observed at this point. The discharge of metal through the vents occurs late in the filling
because the vents are very narrow (comparable to the gate thickness) and significant back
pressure is required to force fluid into the vents. At this time the back flow has started to
fill the large voids on either side of the 30 degree jets. These large and long lived voids are
the last regions of the die to fill and could be expected to have elevated levels of porosity
due to the large volume of the die that was empty when the vents were covered.

322
Door Lock Plates

The final industrial example is the filling of the front and back plates of a door lock. Each
plate is about 180 mm x 32 mm in area. They have the same overall shape, but the small
structures such as the openings and screw sockets are quite different. A tangential runner
system feeds liquid zinc through two long tangential gates at very high speeds of 90 m/s.
The particle size used in this simulation is 0.2 mm because of the very thin gates (around
0.2 mm thick) used for zinc casting. When filled, the total number of particles is more than
2 million, so although many zinc castings are relatively small, they can involve very large
simulations. Figure 4 shows the filling pattern.
Initially, fluid enters the plate centrally (see frames at 1 and 2 ms) despite the presence
of a central diamond shaped cutout intended to prevent this and ensure that metal flowed
along the tangential runners. At 2 ms, the leading fragmented fluid has started to collect
around the rims of the various openings in the plates and the differences between the front
and back plates starts to become clear. It is only when the runner system is almost filled
(3 ms) that fluid is forced to enter the plate through the gate away from the central region.
It does so as four different jets oriented roughly at 30 degrees to the edge of the plates. At
this time fluid from the central jet has reached the far sides of the plates and has rapidly
race tracked along much of their opposite edges.
By 4 ms, more than 60% of the die cavities are filled. The opposite sides of the plates are
filled and fluid is flowing around the rims toward the tops and bottoms of the plates and
back towards the gate. The openings for the lock and handles are now clearly defined and
the differences in the void distribution produced by these openings is pronounced. By 5 ms,
the main cavities are substantially filled with some porosity observable near the gates and
on the top surface of the plates just above the door handle opening. Of more importance
are clear holes in the top and bottom edges of both plates adjacent to the gate. The flow
around the rim of the plates has not been fast enough to fill these regions and the runners
were too narrow near their ends to allow filling from there. These rim holes are hard to fill
and could lead to either cold shuts or to surface defects from weld lines if the fairly cold
leading metal was able to reach the runners and fill these gaps.

Filling of the coaster with solidifying metal

In the case of the filling of a thin coaster, the heat transfer into the die and the resulting
cooling and viscosity variation has a major impact on the predicted fill pattern. Here we
present a full coupled thermal and flow SPH solution including heat conduction into the
solid die. Figure 5 shows the progress of liquid metal filling the die with the colouring
showing the metal temperature. All the fluid is shown on the right side of the die, so the
colouring indicates the surface properties. On the left the liquid is sectioned with only
the material in the bottom half of the die shown. Once the tangential runner fills and
pressurises, fluid is sprayed out into the die on 45 degree angled trajectories towards the
side walls. Liquid metal builds up along the side walls slowing as it cools and becomes more
viscous. Once the metal also makes contact with the colder top and bottom walls of the
die, the cooling and solidification accelerate. The central parts of the die cavity are filled
with a fairly sparse and highly fragmented hot liquid metal. Along the centreline of the
die, splashing liquid metal from either side collide and stick to the top and bottom walls
forming a fragmented line of prematurely solid metal. The build up of metal on the sides
of the die leads to a back filling flow towards the gate. At 60 ms there are four distinct
323
video

Figure 4: Filling by zinc of the front and back plates of a door lock (coloured by speed).

324
video Figure 5: Filling of coaster with fluid coloured by temperature.

unfilled areas. These are a large one directly in front of the gate, one near each of the side
walls towards the end of the die and one along the centreline of the die directly adjacent
to the end wall. At 80 ms, the back filling flow has closed the large void region adjacent to
the gate, but the increasing viscosity of the solidifying metal makes it difficult for the fluid
to flow into the last two remaining large scale voids.

Thermal Validation by Short Shot Comparison

Short shots are obtained by only partially filling a die cavity, generally by using a smaller
shot volume. As the metal flows, it cools and starts to solidify. Eventually the metal
stops moving and freezes in place, preserving significant amounts of information about the
distribution of metal in the die and the nature of the flow. Figure 6 shows a comparison of
an experimental and simulated short shot for the cast aluminium coaster. The simulation
is coloured by viscosity, with red being a highly viscous fluid (almost solid). The predicted
front profile is in very good agreement with the experiment. Note particularly the ability
to predict the more restricted flow in the middle of the die due to the central island in the
gate which acts as a significant thermal sink, leading to much more rapid solidification and
less movement of the fluid front here.

Conclusions

The filling by HPDC of a number of industrial components, ranging from a zinc door
lock to a full aluminium engine rocker cover were simulated using SPH. The detail in the
filling predictions is high and the last locations to fill correlate well with porosity/voidage
observations made by manufacturers of these components. As part of validation, SPH
325
 Figure 6: Short shot: experiment (left), simulation (right).

simulations of short shots for a simple coaster with tangential runners was used. This
highlighted the additional complexities in small, thin parts caused by the heat transfer and
solidification, particularly the possibility of predicting cold shuts.

Acknowledgements

This work was partially funded by the Cooperative Research Centre for Cast Metals Manu-
facturing (CAST). The authors also wish to thank Lockwood Security Products of Australia
for supplying the geometry of one of their products.

References

1. Monaghan, J.J., “Smoothed particle hydrodynamics”, Annual Review of Astronomy

and Astrophysics., 30, (1992), 543-574.
2. Monaghan, J.J., “Simulating free surface flows with SPH”, J. Computational Physics.,
110, (1994), 399-406.
3. Cleary, P.W. & Monaghan, J.J., “Conduction modelling using smoothed particle hy-
drodynamics”, J. Comp. Phys., 148, (1999), 227–264.
4. Cleary, P.W., “Modelling confined multi-material heat and mass flows using SPH”,
Applied Mathematical Modelling, 22, (1998), 981-993.
5. Cleary, P.W., Ha, J., Prakash, M. and Nguyen, T., “3D SPH Flow Predictions and
Validation for High Pressure Die Casting of Automotive Components”, to appear: App
Math. Modelling, (2004).
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die casting using SPH and MAGMAsoft”, Proc. 2nd Int. Conf. on CFD in Minerals and
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