Current Developments on the Coupled Thermomechanical Computational Modeling of Metal Casting Processes

Published in Computer Methods in Material Science Vol.6 (1-2), pp. 15-25, 2006

Abstract

In this paper, current developments on the coupled thermomechanical computational simulation of metal casting processes are presented A thermodynamically consistent constitutive material model is derived from a thermoviscoplastic free energy function. A continuous transition between the initial fluid-like and the final solid-like is modeled by considering a J2 thermoviscoplastic model. Thus, an thermoelastoviscoplastic model, suitable for the solid-like phase, degenerates into a pure thermoviscous model, suitable for the liquid-like phase, according to the evolution of the solid fraction function. A thermomechanical contact model, taking into account the insulated effects of the air-gap due to thermal shrinkage of the part during solidification and cooling, is introduced. A fractional step method, arising from an operator split of the governing differential equations, is considered to solve the coupled problem using a staggered scheme. Within a finite element setting, using low-order interpolation elements, a multiscale stabilization technique is introduced as a convenient framework to overcome the Babuska-Brezzi condition and avoid volumetric locking and pressure instabilities arising in incompressible or quasi-incompressible problems. Computational simulation of industrial castings show the good performance of the model.