A General Enthalpy Method for
Modeling Solidification Processes
C.R. S W A M I N A T H A N and V.R. VOLLER
In the present work, a general implicit source-based enthalpy method is presented for the
analysis of solidification systems. The proposed approach is both robust and efficient. The per-
formance of the method is illustrated by application to a number of problems taken from recent
metallurgical literature.
I. INTRODUCTION
A. Background
A standard approach for the numerical modeling of
metallurgical solidification processes are so-called "fixed"
grid methods. I~-4l The essential feature of these methods
is that the evolution of latent heat is accounted for by
the definition of enthalpy. Consequently, the numerical
solution can be carried out on a space grid that remains
fixed throughout the calculation. The major advantage
of fixed grid methods is that they permit modeling of
solidification phase change through simple modifications
of existing heat-transfer numerical methods and/or
software.
A "generic" solidification phase change system can be
considered to be that of a binary alloy. This system con-
tains a two-phase (solid/liquid) region, often referred to
as the "mushy" region, over which the latent heat as-
sociated with the phase change is evolved. Appropriate
numerical treatments for the latent heat evolution can best
be illustrated by considering heat conduction-controlled
phase change problems (i.e., convection effects due to
density changes at the phase interface or density varia-
tions in the liquid phase are neglected). In such a case,
an appropriate governing equation for the system is l~'31
OH
-- = V.(kVT) [1]
Ot
where k is a mixture conductivity given as
k = (1 - g)ks + gk~ [2]
and H is a mixture enthalpy written as
H = (1 - g)Hs + gH, [3]
Note that g is the volume fraction of the liquid and the
subscripts [~s and [~t represent solid and liquid phases,
respectively.
In general, the enthalpy could be a function of a num-
ber of variables, such as temperature, concentration,
cooling rate, etc. In many solidification models, how-
ever, the enthalpy in the mushy region can be assumed
to be a function of temperature alone. Four possible
C.R. SWAMINATHAN, Graduate Student, Department of
Mechanical Engineering, and V.R. VOLLER, Associate Professor,
Department of Civil and Mineral Engineering, are with the University
of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455.
Manuscript submitted March 4, 1991.
METALLURGICAL TRANSACTIONS B
enthalpy-temperature curves are shown in Figure 1.
Curve A represents the isothermal solidification of a pure
metal or an alloy of eutectic composition where the la-
tent heat is evolved at a unique temperature. In most
solidification systems, however, the phase change from
liquid to solid and the accompanying evolution of latent
heat will occur over a temperature range in which both
liquid and solid coexist. Curve B represents the case where
there is a linear evolution of the latent heat over the so-
lidification range T~-Ts. Curve C depicts a nonlinear
evolution of the latent heat over the solidification range
T~-TE, e.g., the Scheil equation. ISJ The step disconti-
nuity in curve C represents the isothermal transformation
of the remaining liquid at the eutectic temperature TE.
The curves A through C represent systems in which the
specific heats are functions of temperature alone and the
latent heat of fusion is constant. In such cases, the en-
thalpy can be written as
(
H = ( 1 - g) j r pc, dT + g pc~dT + goL [4]
ref ref
where c is the specific heat, P is the density, and Tr~f is
an arbitrary reference temperature. When Eq. [4] is valid,
it becomes possible and computationally convenient t6j to
reformulate the problem explicitly in terms of a liquid
fraction-temperature equation. The appropriate form of
the liquid fraction-temperature relationship for the three
curves is summarized in Table I(A). In contrast to
curves A through C, curve D shows the enthalpy-
temperature relationship for a Pb-Sn hypoeutectic alloy. LTI
In this case, due to the effect of solute redistribution, the
assumptions of a constant latent heat of fusion and
temperature-dependent specific heat are not valid, and it
is not possible to obtain an explicit liquid fraction-
temperature relationship. Table I(B) summarizes the na-
ture of the enthalpy function for this alloy based on the
data and curve fits presented by Poirier and
Nandapurkar. [7]
B. Previous Work
Numerical methods based on Eq. [ l ] [6'8-141 have been
validated in the metallurgical literature. I4'15 lsl A number
of explicit time integration schemes have been re-
ported. LI5,16,18,191These schemes are easy to apply but may
be computationally demanding due to the stability re-
strictions on the choice of time step. Implicit time in-
tegration schemes, on the other hand, have no time step
restrictions. The success in applying implicit schemes is
VOLUME 23B, OCTOBER 1992-- 651
 Wl /

Wig Ts
eg. PURE METAL eg. STEEL

TEMPERATURE TEMPERATURE
(a) (b)

W1 H 1

"'-. T 1

~n
z

TE T~
eg. A1-4.5 Cu eg. P b - 1 0 Sn

TEMPERATURE TEMPERATURE
(c) (a)
Fig. l - - (a) through (d) Different types o f liquid fraction temperature relationships.

based on maintaining the accuracy in the results, while
at the same time avoiding excessive iterations in the so-
lution of the resulting nonlinear algebraic equations.
Thomas et al. I15J have investigated a variety of implicit
finite element apparent heat capacity schemes based on
Eq. [l] to solve for the two-dimensional isothermal so-
lidification of a steel ingot. Basu and Sekhar t171 extended
the implicit scheme of Shamsundar and Sparrow 19j to the
two-dimensional solidification of a binary A1-4.5 pct Cu
alloy governed by the Scheil equation. Recently, Lally
et al. t~SJ have reported an implicit scheme using finite
differences in conjunction with the Kirchhoff transfor-
mation Ill and an alternating direction implicit (ADI)
technique 12~ to solve for the solidification of continuous
cast steel billets and slabs. A distinctive feature of these
past efforts is that the different solution methodologies
are tailor-made to the problem at hand. In addition, these
methodologies require user intervention to provide ap-
propriate conservation algorithms ( e . g . , the evaluation
of the apparent heat capacity 12'8"~51 and/or under-
relaxation factors t~i-~3,~71).
Recently, the authors 161 have proposed an implicit

652--VOLUME 23B, OCTOBER 1992 METALLURGICAL TRANSACTIONS B