Since its first release in 2008, STAR-Cast has been a game changer in the casting industry. Drawing on the strength of its two parents companies, Access e.V. and CD-adapco, STAR-Cast is an efficient and accurate computational software tool that allows the simulation of casting processes with very high precision. STAR-CAST now includes a High Pressure Die Casting (HPDC) module, providing a user-friendly, repeatable analysis tool for these “challenging” casting processes involving both structural and/or non-structural parts. Faithful representation of the piston motion is crucial to accurately capture the filling process. The quality of the casting varies greatly with the piston acceleration. Entrapped air or transport of high amounts of oxides are prone to happen when the melt surface overturns. The second-to-none mesh motion technology in STAR-Cast allows the engineer to quickly evaluate different shot curves and answer urgent questions such as: Does my melt overturn? Is my shot timing right? Does my melt arrive in sync across the multiple ingates? Mold filling analysis is key to predicting defect formation in HPDC problems. Being able to solve both the melt and gas phases at once, as well as their interaction, allows the user to investigate the influence of the gas phase on the mold filling process. Important factors, such as the effect of opening/closing various venting slits on the gas phase behavior, or the effect of flow dead zones on, for example, the melt supply through individual gates, can be easily visualized and provide valuable insight into the casting process. Dosing of the melt into a preheated casting chamber. The simulation reveals pre-solidification before the shot, as well as overturning of the melt surface, which leads to entrained air and oxides. (Top: solution time = 1.0058 s, Bottom: solution time = 4.11805 s). Thermal management has a major impact on tool durability, cycle time, and ultimately on the cost efficiency of the process. STAR-Cast powerful simulation environment allows complex assemblies to be easily manipulated and cooling jacket designs to be optimized. Analysis of the temperature distribution across the mold components prior to mold filling. The fully coupled simulation includes cooling and heating jackets, oil, and water (the coolant can be incorporated as well).
Transcript
Since its first release in 2008, STAR-Cast has been a game changer in the casting industry. Drawing on the strength of its two parents companies, Access e.V. and CD-adapco, STAR-Cast is an efficient and accurate computational software tool that allows the simulation of casting processes with very high precision. STAR-CAST now includes a High Pressure Die Casting (HPDC) module, providing a user-friendly, repeatable analysis tool for these “challenging” casting processes involving both structural and/or non-structural parts.
Faithful representation of the piston motion is crucial to accurately capture the filling process. The quality of the casting varies greatly with the piston acceleration. Entrapped air or transport of high amounts of oxides are prone to happen when the melt surface overturns. The second-to-none mesh motion technology in STAR-Cast allows the engineer to quickly evaluate different shot curves and answer urgent questions such as: Does my melt overturn? Is my shot timing right? Does my melt arrive in sync across the multiple ingates?
Mold filling analysis is key to predicting defect formation in HPDC problems. Being able to solve both the melt and gas phases at once, as well as their interaction, allows the user to investigate the influence of the gas phase on the mold filling process. Important factors, such as the effect of opening/closing various venting slits on the gas phase behavior, or the effect of flow dead zones on, for example, the melt supply through individual gates, can be easily visualized and provide valuable insight into the casting process.
Dosing of the melt into a preheated casting chamber. The simulation reveals pre-solidification before the shot, as well as overturning of the melt surface, which leads to entrained air and oxides. (Top: solution time = 1.0058 s, Bottom: solution time = 4.11805 s).
Thermal management has a major impact on tool durability, cycle time, and ultimately on the cost efficiency of the process. STAR-Cast powerful simulation environment allows complex assemblies to be easily manipulated and cooling jacket designs to be optimized.
Analysis of the temperature distribution across the mold components prior to mold filling. The fully coupled simulation includes cooling and heating jackets, oil, and water (the coolant can be incorporated as well).
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Predicting misruns and cold shuts is of great importance for thin-walled casting geometries as these are common in HPDC. To capture these filling-related defects, STAR-Cast simulates the solidification of the melt using a fine mesh around the filling front, and the dedicated slurry, mushy zone, and flow stop models, which reduce the melt flow until complete stop.
Micro-structure and porosity analyses are based on dedicated criteria functions evaluated throughout the simulation. Macro-shrinkage prediction, solidification condition (G/v), dendrite arm spacing, and micro-porosity indication are accessible at all times of the simulation. After the filling, STAR-Cast can analyze the solidification based on either a fast thermal-only analysis or on a more precise calculation including convection.
Micro-structure and porosity analysis during the solidification of an aluminium alloy.
Body-fitted meshes allow the seamless and automatic meshing of the die, gating and cast
Mesh on a gear box housing. The embedded thin mesher and prism layers are ideal for cell count effectiveness in thin structures, rendering the transition from thin to bulky parts, which are common in HPDC, seamless.
Highly precise, locally refined meshes are crucial when simulating HPDC processes. Die cast parts usually have a large surface-to-volume ratio, which requires an effective meshing algorithm to resolve those thin sections cost-efficiently. STAR-Cast delivers automatically created, body-fitted, polyhedral meshes with prismatic layers to accurately capture the flow behavior and strong temperature gradients. A conformal transition from cast part to mold is automatically created, permitting the accurate capture of local heat transfer between the various components.
