A-SQUARED

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CASTING INNOVATIONS

CASE STUDY - OIL PAN CASTING

During production runs, it was
found that an Aluminium alloy sand
cast Oil Pan (see figure 1) exhibited
some castings with cold shuts and
metal-mould type defects. The defect when present could be found
on the circumferential surfaces of a
pipe like section which runs
through the internal cavity of the
casting (see figure 2). Casting process simulation was utilised as a
means to gain insight into the occurrence of these defects.
THE 3D MODEL
The already available CAD data of
the casting from the customer was
imported into a CAD package
(namely SolidWorks). The specific casting method was then added
to this through additional CAD
modeling to exactly replicate the
pattern/tool in use. The total geometry was then exported from
the CAD package and transferred
to the simulation program (namely
MAGMASOFT)
THE SIMULATION
After importing the geometry into
the simulation program, a suitable
mesh was generated. The mesh acts
to divide the geometry into individual elements to enable the numerical calculations of the simulation to
be performed. The density of mesh
used is of significant importance in
obtaining an accurate result. A
dense mesh with many elements
results in good resolution of the
casting geometry and typically more
accurate results will prevail. A
dense mesh however leads to a
large computational effort and
therefore longer simulation run
times. Hence awareness is required
in mesh generation to achieve the
degree of accuracy required in as
short a time frame as practical to
get to that result.
With the mesh generated to the
desired density, the specific process
definitions were then applied.
These included cast metal type,

pouring temperature, pouring time,

moulding materials used and
moulding aid materials (chills, filters
etc). Finally the appropriate heat
transfer coefficients were added to
capture the boundary conditions
between the different material
types. A complete filling and solidification simulation of the arrangement was then run.
THE RESULTS
Using a cut away view, an initial
study of Air Pressure results on
filling revealed a significant build up
of pressure on the upper surface of
the pipe section (see figure 3). This
result was then correlated to the
same cut away view of filling on
temperature (see figure 4). An air
pocket can be seen on the pipe like
surface and is evident for approximately 50% of the total filling time.
It was deduced from this that obviously the filling occurs at a rate
which is more rapid than the air
trapped can permeate through the
sand mould. As the head pressure
from the filling mould cavity increases, so to does the pressure on
air trapped in the mould. Gradually
the air permeates through the sand.
Further simulations were then conducted with adjustments to both
the pouring temperature and the
pouring time. These were intended
to represent the typical operating
envelope of the process. This revealed that when a combination of
lower pouring temperature was
combined with slower filling, low
temperature metal formed quickly
within the pipe section which
mixes with the trapped air as the
pipe section fills.

Figure 1 - CAD representation of Oil Pan casting.

Figure 2 cut away view exposing pipe section.

Figure 3 - air pressure result of filling simulation.

This was the cause of the defects

reported in the production castings
and remedial action was then instigated.
PROJECT HOURS TAKEN
CAD Hours:
Simulation Hours:

12
16

The density of mesh used is of significant importance in obtaining an accurate result.

Figure 4 - temperature result of filling simulation.