Modeling of droplet flow, temperature and solidification in a spray forming process
- Carnegie Mellon Univ., Pittsburgh, PA (United States). Mechanical Engineering Dept.
- Aluminum Co. of America, Alcoa Center, PA (United States). Alcoa Technical Center
This paper describes a computational simulation of the convective transport of metal droplets during a spray forming process. The numerical procedure employed here is a fully interacting combination of Eulerian flow and Lagrangian droplet calculations. Droplet dispersion by turbulent fluctuation is modeled based on droplet interaction with successive eddies and a random-walk or Monte Carlo method. The related gas turbulence parameters are modeled through a two equation, {kappa}-{epsilon} model. Modeling of aluminum droplet solidification uses a five-stage process evolution involving undercooling and recalescence. Statistical results obtained from the present computation reveal important process information, such as droplet distribution, velocity, temperature, solidification fraction, and preform shape. The multi-phase transport phenomena in an existing spray chamber for aluminum forming have been simulated. Similar computations are undertaken to examine the effects of chamber geometry on the spray transport as well as the preform quality.
- OSTI ID:
- 435668
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-951135--; ISBN 0-7918-1751-2
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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