Numerical Modeling of the Effect of Mechanical Vibration on 10 kg C45 Steel Ingot Solidification

Numerical modeling of the solidification structure evolution has been performed to predict the structure development during the solidification of a 10 kg C45 steel ingot. The model consists of two schemes: The Finite Difference method (FD) for the macroscopic heat transport of the unsteady two-dimensional temperature field in solidifying metal and the Cellular Automaton (CA) method for simulating the evolution of as-cast structures. The effect of mechanical vibration (MV) is evaluated from the aspects of increasing the apparent thermal conductivity of the liquid and the nucleation probability. An increased effective thermal conductivity by MV is assumed in the liquid phase. A 10% larger nucleation probability is also assumed to introduce the increased nucleation sites due to dendrite fragmentation caused by the imposition of MV. The simulation results are validated by the hot model experiments regarding the grain morphology and the temperature profile. The results of numerical modeling agree well with the experimental results and can be used for predicting the solidification structure evolution under various conditions.