MULTIPHASE FLOW SIMULATION OF VERTICAL

CENTRIFUGAL CASTING USING ANSYS FLUENT

*Arkaprava Gupta¹ and Dr. Debasree Ghosh2

1
Department of Chemical Engineering, B.I.T. Mesra, Ranchi, 835215, India
2
Assistant Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering, B.I.T. Mesra, Ranchi,
835215, India
*Corresponding author: arkoprobhogupta23@gmail.com

Abstract:

Vertical centrifugal casting technique is used to manufacture rotationally symmetric

components in the chemical, nuclear, petrochemical, aerospace, military and other
industries. In this process, a mould is rotated about a vertical axis, and the molten metal
is held against the walls of the mould by centrifugal force until it solidifies[1]. This
technique produces parts with fine-grained structures, that enhances its mechanical
properties [2]. However, due to casting defects and lower casting yields, manufacturing
industries incur huge losses every year [3]. Inability to gather flow field and
temperature distribution data due to rotating mould and high temperature makes it
impossible to solve these problems by experimentation. Thus, operating conditions can
be analyzed and optimized using simulations only.

The purpose of this research work is to investigate the controlling factors that affect the
quality of the final product of vertical centrifugal casting through computational fluid
dynamics simulation in ANSYS Fluent. Since aluminium machinery parts are most
commonly used in industry, it has been used in simulation. For simulating aluminium-
air multiphase Volume of Fluid model has been used. For melting-solidification, that
occurs during casting process, Enthalpy-porosity model has been used. Through
simulations, it has been found that the mould preheating temperature, mould rotational
speed and melt pouring rate are the major factors affecting the quality of finished
product.

Keywords: Vertical centrifugal casting, casting defects, computational fluid dynamics

simulation, Volume of Fluid model, Enthalpy porosity model.
 (a) (b) (c)

(d) (e)

Fig. 1 Phase Contours of Molten Aluminium (in red) in vertical centrifugal casting

References

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Transfer Coefficient at Cast-Mold Interface During Centrifugal Casting:
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[3] G. Srinivas, “Numerical simulation of centrifugal compressor,” ARPN J. Eng.

Appl. Sci., vol. 9, no. 5, pp. 639–645, 2014 .