Foundry: Sand Core Blowing
Sand density distribution at the end
of filling (blue is low, red is high)
The making of high quality sand cores, exhibiting good
binding and with uniform density, is a difficult task involving a mixture
of experience with trial-and-error testing. The success achieved by simulating metal casting processes makes it
natural to apply simulation tools to the making of sand cores.
A numerical approach has been developed for FLOW-3D to
simulate the sand blowing and core formation process. The approach taken was
to extend FLOW-3D’s sediment scour model
to model the flow of air and sand into a complex geometry. Sand is represented
by two concentrations (scalars): the concentration of flowing sand (convecting
scalar) and the concentration of packed sand (non-flowing scalar).
Packed sand is treated as a porous media through which air can flow to outlet vents. Vent locations are important because they can have a significant effect on the quality of the final core.
The model will predict the build-up of packed sand and the pressure distribution in the entire core cavity as a function of time, and to predict regions that sand is not able to fill.
Read more in our Casting Tech Papers