The effect of melt temperature profile on the transient metal/mold heat transfer coefficient during solidification

Modeling of casting solidification can provide a method for improving casting yields. An accurate casting solidification model might be used to predict microstructure and to control the process based on thermal and operational parameters, and for this, it is necessary the previous knowledge of the transient metal/mold heat transfer coefficient, h(i). Most investigations concerning the overall heat transfer coefficient between metal and mold have applied numerical methods for the solution of the inverse heat conduction problem (IHCP). In general, such studies consider a constant initial melt temperature in order to reckon the time-dependent h(i). In the present work, solidification experiments have been carried with alloys of two metallic systems, and experimentally obtained temperatures were used by a numerical technique in order to determine transient metal/mold heat transfer coefficients, h(i). It is shown that h(i) profiles can be affected significantly by the initial melt temperature distribution. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.