Getting started with Visual Environment

Gravity Casting process

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 Outlines

The goal of this tutorial is to show a typical

flowchart in Visual Environment 8.6
for a Gravity Casting Application.

Note : what is shown is a way of using the software.

It does not mean that this is the only way of using it.

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 Foundry Process data

Materials and Initial Conditions

Casting : S.G. 450/12 (1390 °C)
Core : CBFMS-C (Fine) (20 °C)
Mold : Green Sand (20 °C)

Filling
Pouring Temperature 1390 °C
Pouring Flow Rate : 4.064 kg/sec
Inlet Diameter : 30 mm

Foundry ambience
Ambient Temperature 35 °C

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Launch Visual Mesh Application

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 Geometry
CAD

1 Applications / Mesh

2 File / Open «core.x_t »

3 File / Append « mold1.x_t »

4 File / Append « mold2.x_t »

5 Repair / Check : No
problems identified

6 Assembly / Check / Assemble All

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 Geometry
CAD

1 Delete the shared surface

between molds to obtain a
single mold volume.

2 Use the Blend tool to split

alloy volume into casting
and gating volumes

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 Geometry
CAD

1 Geometry / Curve / Sketch

2 Use Flat (Planar)

tool to create the
gating volume

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 Geometry
CAD

1 Compute volumes 2 Rename volumes (Press F2)

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 Geometry
MESH

Surface Mesh :

Check and repair.

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 Geometry
MESH

Surface Mesh :

Check and repair.

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 Geometry
MESH
Surface Mesh :

Check and repair.

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Switch to Visual Cast Application

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 Process Definition
GRAVITY ORIENTATION

Cast / Gravity Vector/Tilt :

Select +Z as gravity direction.

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 Process Definition
MATERIAL MANAGEMENT

Volumes / Edit Group Casting and Gating.

Specify for each group or volume :

Type, Material, Fill%, Initial Temperature.

Apply and close.

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 Process Definition
INTERFACES MANAGEMENT

Interfaces HTC / Edit :

Assign type COINC to the interface between Mold and Core  h = 500
Assign type COINC to the interface between Casting and Core  h = 1000
Assign type COINC to the interface between Cast and Mold  h = 1000

Typical
Typical values
values for
for hh (Int
(Int HTC
HTC inin W/m
W/m22K)
K)
••Metal
Metal –– metal:
metal: 22 000
000 –– 50
50 000
000
••Metal – sand:
Metal – sand: 500
500 –– 22 000
000
••Sand
Sand –– sand:
sand: 300
300 –– 800
800
Apply and close.
••Solid
Solid –– air:
air: 55 –– 20
20
••Solid
Solid – cooling air:
– cooling air: 100
100 –– 11 000
000
••Solid
Solid –– water:
water: 55 000
000 –– 40
40 000
000

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 Process Definition
PROCESS CONDITIONS

Heat Exchange / New Select all the external faces

Boundary
condition : Air
Cooling

Apply and close.

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 Process Definition
PROCESS CONDITIONS

Inlet / New Boundary condition : Create a new boundary

condition with Flow Rate = 0.15 Kg/s and
Temperature = 700°C

Apply and close.

Select the center of the circle.

Define Region
Type : Circle
Name : Inlet_Gravity
Radius : 10

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 Process Definition
PROCESS CONDITIONS

Process conditions / Geometrical / Select Mirror1

Symmetry / Define symmetry
Define the symmetry plane
by selecting 3 points
belonging to it.

Verify that « Identify

regions » is ticked.

Regions updated, taking into account symmetries.

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 Process Definition
SIMULATION PARAMETERS

Select Gravity Filling as pre-defined parameters.

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 Run & Monitor progress Calculation

Cast / Start Simulation

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Switch to Visual Viewer Application

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 Analysis
FLOW

Fluid Velocity & Vectors

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 Analysis
THERMAL

Temperature & Fraction of Solid

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 Analysis
THERMAL

Shrinkage porosity prediction

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 Analysis
THERMAL

Core temperature evolution

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Copyright © ESI Group, 2012. All rights reserved.