Thermal stress analysis method considering geometric effect of risers in sand mold casting process.

Solidification and fluid flow analysis using computer simulation is a current common practice. There is also a high demand for thermal stress analysis in the casting process because casting engineers want to control the defects related to thermal stresses, such as large deformation and crack generation during casting. The riser system is an essential part of preventing the shrinkage defects in the casting process, and it has a great influence on thermal phenomena. The analysis domain is dramatically expanded by attaching the riser system to a casting product due to its large volume, and it makes FEM mesh generation difficult. However, it is difficult to study and solve the above proposed problem caused by riser system using traditional analysis methods which use single numerical method such as FEM or FDM. In this paper, some research information is presented on the effects of the riser system on thermal stress analysis using a FDM/FEM hybrid method in the casting process simulation. The results show the optimal conditions for stress analysis of the riser model in order to save computation time and memory resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]