Studies on Transport Phenomena During Solidification of an Aluminum Alloy in Presence of Electromagnetic Stirring: Parametric Effects

ABSTRACT

In the present work, a numerical study is performed to predict the effect of process parameters on temperature, species and solid fraction distribution during solidification in presence of electromagnetic stirring of an aluminium alloy (A356) in a cylindrical mould. The present solidification process is represented by a set of single-phase governing equations of mass, momentum, energy and species conservation. In the momentum conservation equation, the electromagnetic forces are introduced using an analytical solution of Maxwell equation and a variable viscosity function. The effective viscosity depends on process parameters, and is used to represent the rheological behavior of the slurry during processing. The set of governing equations is solved using a pressure based finite volume technique, along with an enthalpy based phase change algorithm. The results show that the solidification process is significantly affected by process parameters such as stirring intensity and cooling rate. It is found that increasing stirring intensity results in increase of slurry velocity. Correspondingly, the fragmentation of dendrites from the solid/liquid interface increases and results increase in the fraction of solid in the slurry. It is also found that the solid fraction in the liquid increases at very low cooling rates.

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