Tips & Tricks

Modeling the solidification of cast irons

Successfully modeling solidification of Cast Iron is of great help for the foundries to reduce their production costs and thus to increase their profits. If the basic physical solidification phenomena are correctly modeled by the simulation tools mold risering can really be optimized.

Why it is useful to describe problems in terms of non-dimensional parameters and which ones are the main important in solidification?

A dimensionless quantity is a quantity without any physical units. Such a number is typically defi ned as a product or ratio of quantities which do have units, in such a way that all units cancel. Dimensionless quantities are widely used in the fields of physics and engineering but also in every day life.

Influences of Solidification Length and Pressure Intensification on Gas Shrinkage Microporosity in Casting Components

Porosity in castings is a major defect since it affects the mechanical properties. In particular porosities are sites for the initiation of fatigue cracks. Therefore, the reduction of porosity fraction and size, the control of porosity distribution and morphology are crucial for the optimization of mechanical resistance of as cast components.

Boundary layer meshing with CFD-ACE+ [video format]

The accuracy of a CFD solution is strongly dependent on how well the mesh resolves geometry and flow features. This is especially true for near wall regions (boundary layer) where viscous forces are not negligible compared to inertial forces.

CFD-FASTRAN/CFD-ACE+ coupling for thermal environment simulations

In certain applications, different regions of the computational domain experiences flow conditions that are so different that it is very difficult for a single solver to produce accurate results at the extremes. In many situations, such problems can be separated and solved using loosely coupled solvers. Each solver is chosen to provide highly accurate solutions for the prevailing flow conditions.

How to check what software version you are running

There is a very fast and easy way to verify what software version you are running for your ESI CFD applications. You most likely know that this information is available for the GUI by clicking on 'Help → About ...', and for solvers by looking in the output file.

Always Make Sure You Have a Good Mesh Quality

The mesh has a great influence on the solver convergence and solution of every CFD Simulation. The user is strongly advised to check the quality of a numerical mesh.

Avoiding Chimera Errors in CFD-FASTRAN

This note discusses a common error encountered by users when trying chimera meshes in CFD-FASTRAN. Such errors are easy to avoid and hopefully this note will assist you.

Copy/Paste Viewpoint tools

Usually, when performing a particular simulation, it is necessary to compare the results of similar models or the same model at different operating conditions. It is important that the two (or more) cases being compared be viewed from the same angle and at the same zoom level.

Motion Model Dependencies in CFD-FASTRAN

Moving-body models available in CFD-FASTRAN are highly suited to simulate complex prescribed and six-degree-of-freedom (6DOF) motions of rigid bodies. In many engineering problems, this translates to multiple bodies moving relative to one another.