Four-phase fully-coupled mold-filling and solidification simulation for gas porosity prediction in aluminum sand casting

The impact of mold-filling and oxide film enclosure on gas porosity in A356 was investigated using a three-phase, fully-coupled, mold-filling and solidification simulation. For the prediction of gas porosity, a fourth hydrogen phase was added. At the solidification front hydrogen is rejected from the solid and accumulates in the melt. Pores nucleate if the solute gas exceeds the solubility limit. Air and melt are separated by a volume of fluid interface and special treatment of the hydrogen phase convection was necessary to limit the hydrogen to the melt. Folding of the melt surface was used as a source for oxide film entrainment. These oxide films were transported with the melt and used as nucleation sites for gas porosity formation. The influence of melt flow due to filling and oxide film distribution was analyzed using a simple 3-block test geometry. The test geometry was cast in A356 and analyzed by computer tomography to validate the porosity prediction.