Numerical simulation of flows encountered during mold-filling

This paper describes a model to simulate flows and interface activity during the filling of three-dimensional metal-casting molds. A technique developed by Liu Jun at Imperial College, based on the use of a conserved scalar variable to represent the liquid with an adaptation of the van Leer scheme to define the instantaneous position of the interface, has been adopted. Computations have been performed to simulate two distinct filling problems, one dealing with the slow filling of a large sand-casting mold and the other dealing with the much more rapid situation encountered in pressure die casting. The computations were performed by using the PHOENICS CFD code, and the results were compared against a water model experiment of the die-casting case.