Casting of a Steel Valve Body Using Lost Foam Sand casting: Comparison Between Experimental and Simulation Results

This study presents a comparison between the experimental and simulation results in the casting of a steel part "Valve body DN80" using lost foam sand casting. A computer simulation was conducted using commercial software, Flow-3D Cast, to analyze the processes of pouring and solidification of the casting. The trial casting of valve bodies was carried out using the lost foam process. Cast parts were also subjected to hydraulic soundness tests. The simulation results showed that shrinkage cavities and porosity were formed in the valve body casting with the basic variant of the gating system. At the same time, experimental castings had leaked during hydraulic soundness tests. As a result of the analysis of simulations and trial castings, the gating system was changed, feeders were increased and internal chills were used. The proposed changes made it possible to minimize the number of shrinkage defects in the valve body casting. Castings obtained by the adjusted technology had a satisfactory surface quality, did not contain significant shrinkage defects and passed the hydraulic soundness test. The analysis of the experimental castings showed sufficient convergence with the numerical simulation results.