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A comprehensive meshless numerical model was developed for the simulation of direct chill casting under the influence of low frequency electromagnetic field. The model uses mass, momentum and energy conservation equations to simulate the solidification of aluminum alloy billets. Electromagnetic field equations are coupled with the fluid flow and used to calculate the Lorentz force. Mixture formulation of transport equations is used to handle the two-phase solidifying flow. All time-dependent partial-differential equations are solved with the diffuse approximate method. An explicit time stepping scheme was used. Three different types of boundary conditions for the heat transfer were incorporated, therefore the effects of hot-top, mould chill and direct chill are all considered in the simulation. The use of meshless method and automatic computational node generation made it possible to investigate complex inflow conditions, including sharp and curved edges in a straightforward way. A time dependant adaptive grid was used to decrease the calculation time. The macroscopic transport model results are used in two other independent models to solve the solid mechanics and microscopic grain growth equations. An industrial casting case of an aluminum alloy billet with the radius of 144 mm and Al-5.25 wt.% Cu alloy was simulated as an example. The effect of low frequency electromagnetic force on temperature, liquid fraction and fluid flow was investigated.
Keywords: Casting simulation, direct chill casting, low frequency electromagnetic casting, diffuse approximate method, meshless methods© This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.