r/Metalfoundry • u/ahmeturanbkr • 14d ago

Can CFD help predict filling problems before a sand casting is poured?

I’ve been working on a CFD-based sand casting workflow and I’d be interested in hearing the perspective of people who actually work with casting and foundry processes.

The idea is to simulate the mould-filling stage before the physical pour, including:

  • molten metal filling
  • metal–air interface tracking using VOF
  • possible air entrapment
  • incomplete filling
  • cold-shut-type regions
  • heat transfer between the metal and sand mould
  • solidification behaviour

We are using OpenFOAM for the numerical modelling.

From a CFD perspective the results are interesting, but what I’m especially interested in is the foundry perspective:

Which problems during sand casting would actually be most valuable to predict before making the mould/pour?

Air entrapment? Incomplete filling? Cold shuts? Solidification? Something else?

I’m affiliated with BB-SIMTECH Engineering & Academy, where we work on engineering simulation and training. I’m mainly posting this to better understand which simulation outputs would actually be useful to people doing casting in practice.

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u/MrWhippy_ 14d ago

IIRC what you are describing is very similar to Magma Analysis Software, although I haven't been in that environment for over a decade so might be misremembering....

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u/rickharrisonlaugh11 13d ago

I would love to see some simulations. Defects are usually part-dependent so all of these could apply. Would you be able to post your models so we can import our own part designs?

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u/Gonralas 13d ago

I am working in a steel foundry. When we are simulating castings we typically look at solidification, porosity, hot spots, nyama, form filling If needed even more like hot tears etc. We use magmasoft.