Three-dimensional free surface modelling in an unstructured mesh environment for metal processing applications

In the casting of metals, tundish flow, welding, converters, and other metal processing applications, the behaviour of the fluid surface is important. In aluminium alloys, for example, oxides formed on the surface may be drawn into the body of the melt where they act as faults in the solidified product affecting cast quality. For this reason, accurate description of wave behaviour, air entrapment, and other effects need to be modelled, in the presence of heat transfer and possibly phase change. The authors have developed a single-phase algorithm for modelling this problem. The Scalar Equation Algorithm (SEA) (see Refs. 1 and 2), enables the transport of the property discontinuity representing the free surface through a fixed grid. An extension of this method to unstructured mesh codes is presented here, together with validation. The new method employs a TVD flux limiter in conjunction with a ray-tracing algorithm, to ensure a sharp bound interface. Applications of the method are in the filling and emptying of mould cavities, with heat transfer and phase change.

Details of an integrated approach to three-dimensional dynamic fluid structure interaction

Fluid structure interaction, as applied to flexible structures, has wide application in diverse areas such as flutter in aircraft, wind response of buildings, flows in elastic pipes and blood vessels. Numerical modelling of dynamic fluid-structure interaction (DFSI) involves the coupling of fluid flow and structural mechanics, two fields that are conventionally modelled using two dissimilar methods, thus a single comprehensive computational model of both phenomena is a considerable challenge and until recently work in this area focused on one phenomenon and represented the behaviour of the other more simply. A single, finite volume unstructured mesh (FV-UM) spatial discretisation method has been employed on a single mesh for the entire domain. The Navier Stokes equations for fluid flow are solved using a SIMPLE type procedure and the Newmark b algorithm is employed for solving the dynamic equilibrium equations for linear elastic solid mechanics and mesh movement is achieved using a spring based mesh procedure for dynamic mesh movement. In the paper we describe a number of additional computation issues for the efficient and accurate modelling of three-dimensional, dynamic fluid-structure interaction problems.

Three-dimensional simulation of the influence of convection on dendritic solidification

Bulk and interdendritic flow during solidification alters the microstructure development, potentially leading to the formation of defects. In this paper, a 3D numerical model is presented for the simulation of dendritic growth in the presence of fluid flow in both liquid and semi-solid zones during solidification. The dendritic growth was solved by the combination of a stochastic nucleation approach with a finite difference solution of the solute diffusion equation and. a projection method solution of the Navier-Stokes equations. The technique was applied first to simulate the growth of a single dendrite in 2D and 3D in an isothermal environment with forced fluid flow. Significant differences were found in the evolution of dendritic morphology when comparing the 2D and 3D results. In 3D the upstream arm has a faster growth velocity due to easier flow around the perpendicular arms. This also promotes secondary arm formation on the upstream arm. The effect of fluid flow on columnar dendritic growth and micro-segregation in constrained solidification conditions is then simulated. For constrained growth, 2D simulations lead to even greater inaccuracies as compared to 3D.