The use of FLOW-3D Cast in your casting design process translates directly to savings that improve your company's bottom line. FLOW-3D Cast provides engineers and designers with powerful tools to enhance their experience and expertise. The savings come from cost reductions and cost avoidance. Now, quality and productivity issues can be solved in less time and with lower costs by evaluating alternative concepts with simulation before die steel is cut or molds are modified. And, the effectiveness of new tool development can be improved by solving the problems before production begins. FLOW-3D Cast contains a wide variety of physical models specially designed for casting. These special models include algorithms for lost foam casting, non-Newtonian fluids, and die cycling. If you want to improve the accuracy of your simulations and the quality of your cast products, then FLOW-3D Cast is the simulation tool for you What's New in FLOW-3D Cast Version 3.5 Core Gas Generation and Transport The core gas model describes the generation of gas in sand cores during the pouring and cooling of metal. The gas comes from the decomposition of the sand binder due to the heat coming from the metal. The model is based on first principles and aims at capturing in detail the heat transfer between metal and mold, binder pyrolysis and the flow of gas within the core, and its venting at the core’s external surfaces. The core gas model can be used together with filling and solidification simulations. The model predicts the gas pressure and velocities, and evaluates the mass flux of gas at core prints, at the open surfaces and, most importantly, into the metal. This model is in FLOW-3D Cast Advanced only. Additions for Modeling Solidification & Shrinkage The Simple Solidification Shrinkage model (formerly Rapid Solidification Shrinkage model) has been extended to work with multi-block meshes. It can also be applied to tilt pour and centrifugal castings. The Dynamic Shrinkage model has been reinstated, thanks to improvements in its accuracy and convergence. Iron Solidification Model The model describes eutectic and near-eutectic solidification of cast irons, coupled with the Simple Solidification Shrinkage model. The formation of austenite, graphite and carbide phases is also predicted. Interdendritic Feeding The Rapid Solidification Shrinkage model has been updated with the option to ignore gravity when computing the direction of feeding. In this case the feeding occurs in the direction of the temperature gradient – from hot to cold zones, hence the name interdendritic. The new feeding option is useful when modeling thin walled castings where mesh resolution may be insufficient to resolve the thin layer of solid forming on mold walls. In such cases, the standard gravity feeding model may over-predict the amount of feeding from the “top” of the casting. Macro-Segregation Model The new macro-segregation model in FLOW-3D Cast describes the evolution of binary alloy composition due to phase transformation, diffusion in both liquid and solid phases and convection in the liquid metal. It is designed to model changes in binary alloy composition due to transport of solute by convection and diffusion. Macro-segregation can be activated in the GUI, but the fluid parameters must be added in the Flow menu (Special Parameters>Custom FLOW-3D parameters) This model is in FLOW-3D Cast Advanced only. Cavitation Potential Model This new model is designed to predict die erosion due to cavitation during filling in high pressure die casting. Metal pressure can drop several atmospheres below the metal vapor pressure in areas of very fast flow, possibly causing cavitation and erosion. A simple way to predict damage due to cavitation is to predict the likelihood of the cavitation, or the cavitation potential, without actually introducing cavitating bubbles into the flow. This model is in FLOW-3D Cast Extended and Advanced only. New Models for Coremaking Sand Core Blowing The model describes the behavior of granular media. In particular, it allows users to model the sand core shooting process. This model is in FLOW-3D Cast Advanced only. Permeable Mold Model A new ‘Permeable Mold’ property of a geometry component, in combination with the adiabatic bubble model, allows users to include the escape of air through porous sand molds during filling without the need to use the porous media flow model. This addition complements the existing valve model, often used when modeling the high pressure die casting filling. This model is in FLOW-3D Cast Extended and Advanced only. Moisture Drying Model Two models are now available to describe the evolution of moisture in porous components. A simpler, isothermal model is suitable for sand molds and cores during filling and solidification. The second option uses a more sophisticated two-phase liquid/gas model and is designed to simulate the drying process of porous materials such as paper, fabric and sand cores. This model is in FLOW-3D Cast Advanced only. Temperature-Dependent Material Properties Thermo-physical properties of some fluids and solids vary significantly with temperature. Taking into account this behavior is important for obtaining accurate numerical solutions. FLOW-3D Cast allows users to define these properties as a function of temperature in a tabular form. Almost all properties of fluid and geometry components can now be defined as a function of temperature. The data can be entered either directly into the material database or into the simulation setup file and later saved to the database. Viscosity can also be defined as a function of strain rate using tabular data. The material database has been redesigned accordingly. Specifically, each material is now represented by its own file. The tabular data can be loaded from, saved to and edited in the database. When loaded into a simulation, the data is transferred to the prepin file for better portability of the simulation files. SMP Parallelization SMP parallelization of the solver, based on OpenMP technology, has been extended to most physical and numerical models, including the moving objects for shot sleeve motion (Extended) and ladle pouring (Advanced) and all VOF models. New Setup Features The following can now be activated through the user interface: Thixotropic and Non-Newtonian fluid properties Volumetric flow rate for border conditions Fluid heat sources Addition of density and temperature for metal inputs Air entrainment coefficient RNG with ability to change TLEN (turbulent mixing length) Air entrainment was added to the selected data list for post-processing New Output Flow tracers Flow tracers can be introduced at flux surface to enhance flow visualization. Each flux surface can introduce a unique tracer, while a combined tracer provides a view of all tracers at the same time.