Heat transfer during solidification of chemically modified Al-Si alloys around a copper chill

Abstract

The solidifying metal/chill contour will significantly affect the boundary heat transfer coefficients, and solidification modellers should be aware of the casting conditions for which the heat transfer coefficients are determined. The previous work carried out on solidification of Al-Si alloys in a metallic mould and solidification against bottom/top chills has shown that modification and chilling have synergetic effect resulting in a significant increase in the heat flux transients at the casting/chill interface. In the present work, the heat transfer during solidification of unmodified and chemically modified Al-Si alloys around a cylindrical copper chill was investigated. Heat flux transients were estimated using lumped heat capacitance method. Lower peak heat flux was obtained with chemically modified alloy. This is in contrast to the results reported for alloys solidifying against chills and in metallic moulds. The chill thermal behaviour and heat transfer to the chill material when surrounded by modified and unmodified alloys were explained on the basis of the decrease in the degree of undercooling in the case of modified alloy as compared to unmodified alloy and the change in contact condition and shrinkage characteristics of the alloy due to the addition of chemical modifiers. © 2011 Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining.