A micro-model for aluminum-silicon alloys
- Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison, WI (United States)
- Ford Motor Co., Dearborn, MI (United States)
A356 and A319 are aluminum-silicon casting alloys used in automobile powertrain castings such as engine blocks and cylinder heads. It is of interest to model solidification and microstructure evolution in these alloys as a function of melt composition and processing conditions. There are essentially two approaches to solidification modeling. The first is that of macro-modeling where heat flow is considered on a large scale with the intent of verifying gating system design and estimating overall solidification times for different regions of the casting. The second approach is a more fundamental approach that uses micro-models to estimate latent heat and fraction of solid evolution. The micro-models estimate the evolution of fraction of solid during solidification using nucleation and growth kinetics. These kinetics can be evaluated using first principles which is usually computationally very intensive, or they can be evaluated using experiments. This work describes an implementation of one such micromodel for Al-Si alloys which uses experimental results to estimate nucleation and growth kinetics. The goal of this work is to incorporate the micro-model into a macromodel to improve temperature history predictions a/nd provide a basis for more detailed microstructure and microporosity predictions. The model has been implemented in ProCAST{trademark}, a finite element based commercial casting analysis software.
- OSTI ID:
- 382488
- Journal Information:
- Scripta Materialia, Journal Name: Scripta Materialia Journal Issue: 7 Vol. 35; ISSN XZ503X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
ALUMINIUM ALLOYS
AUTOMOBILES
CHEMICAL COMPOSITION
DUCTILITY
ENGINES
EUTECTICS
FINITE ELEMENT METHOD
FUSION HEAT
HEAT FLUX
KINETICS
LIQUID METALS
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
MICROSTRUCTURE
NUCLEATION
POROSITY
PREDICTION EQUATIONS
SILICON ALLOYS
SOLIDIFICATION
TENSILE PROPERTIES