Simulation Of Directional Solidification Process Of Hollow Sidewall Steel Ingot

The directional solidification technology is use the artificial way which isbeneficial to increasing the solidification rate and increasing the temperature gradient.It can make the metal liquid solidification along the opposite direction to the heat.This process can control the growth direction of the columnar crystal，the transversegrain boundary of casting can be reduced obviously and the mechanical property andthe high temperature performance of casting can be increased.This article integrated the current production status of40t directionalsolidification ingot, using hollow sidewall directional solidification producingextra-thick plate basis of the good insulated of air. Using FEM software ProCASTsimulates the solidification process of40t traditional directional solidification and thehollow sidewall directional solidification. The initial condition and boundaryconditions of numerical simulation was set bases of actual production situation. Thismodel use heat insulator on the top and the sidewall of the mold, use hollow toreduce the heat loss,use water-cooling on the bottom of the mold. It’s truthfulnessthat the liquid level was very steadily in the filling process. The simulating results wasvalidated by experiment, concluded that the simulating results and experiment resultsis consistent with each other, so the model is feasible. A comparative analysis of thedirectional solidification process among the traditional steel ingot and the differentthickness hollow sidewall steel ingot was done by software in temperature distribution,shrinkage cavity distribution and full solidification time. The simulating resultingresults show that the temperature distribution of hollow sidewall steel ingot indirectional solidification is reasonable and the degree and the range of the shrinkagecavity are reduced, the solidification time is increased. The thermal insulation is bestwhen the thickness of the hollow is20mm.