METHOD OF QUASI-STATIONARY MODELING OF THE SOLIDIFICATION ZONE OF ALUMINUM ALLOY IN SEMI-CONTINUOUS CASTING

Abstract

For more than half a century of experience, ingots of aluminum alloys have been produced by continuous casting. The phase transition of metal from a liquid to a solid state is a complex process and the refinement of the casting technology has to be carried out on real castings, which is associated with con- siderable material and time costs. Computer modeling systems for casting processes allow reducing costs at the stage of experimental casting. Casting processes are inherently multiphysical and this feature requires finding solutions to related problems. In semi-continuous casting, such problems include determining the crystallization front of the al- loy with the simultaneous movement of the forming blank under conditions of continuous heat removal and the flow of successive portions of the melt into the crystallizer. The joint implementation of such complex computational models of hydraulics and thermal physics requires the introduction of systems of constraints and assumptions without distorting the physics of the process. In practice, such engineering analysis sys- tems as ProCAST, LVMFlow, PoligonSoft, MAGMASOFT, etc. have already proven themselves well. In connection with the creation of technology for new materials of the Priority 2030 program and the absence of a continuous casting module in the specified specialized systems, a methodology for con- ducting a computational experiment from the standpoint of a quasi-stationary approximation is required. In this case, the billet drawing is considered stepwise as a sequence of events at fixed intervals of time. At each step, only the thermal problem is solved, considering the instantaneous displacement of the ma- chine pallet by a given distance and the instantaneous filling of the crystallizer with melt to a fixed level. In the future, the obtained results will allow us to adequately select continuous casting equipment and more thoroughly prepare for a full-scale experiment.