Determination of Thermal Properties of Foundry Green Sand to Improve Numerical Simulation

Abstract

Numerical simulation of the foundry process, aimed at reducing costs and production lead times, directly impacts the responsiveness and competitiveness of the foundries that employ it. Three experiments were conducted to establish the values of specific heat capacity (Cp), density (ρ), and thermal conductivity (λ) of green sand over a measurement range spanning from room temperature to over 800 °C. These experiments yielded representative data for the real properties of silico-clay sand, which were subsequently substituted for the generic properties provided in the NovaFlow&Solid® software database. It is worth noting that this study is not limited to a single software; the physical properties obtained can be transferred to other simulation software as well. A cooling simulation was conducted with the corrected physical properties of the sand, and the resulting curve better reflects reality than the one initially obtained with the original values. Having a more precise knowledge of the exact temperature of the metal at a given moment is crucial for predicting certain defects.