Mold Filling Analysis in Lost Foam Casting Process for Aluminum Alloys and Its Experimental Validation

Abstract

A mathematical model is developed in this study to simulate the filling pattern in lost foam casting and validated by comparing the simulated results to the experimental measurements. A special treatment is devised to handle the unique problem of back-pressure generated due to the evaporation of polystyrene during filling in lost foam casting. Experiments are also conducted with thermocouples embedded in the pattern of lost foam casting. With the measured temperature data, filling pattern can be derived. The mathematical model is then tested on several lost foam castings, where experimental measurements are also conducted. As the simulated filling patterns are compared with the experimental measurements, good agreement is observed.