Effect of Simulation Conditions on Grain Selection during Solidification of Single Crystal Casting

Abstract

A macro-scale ProCAST and a meso-scale Cellular Automaton Finite Element model (CAFE) are used to simulate the grain selection during solidification with different simulation conditions. To improve the efficiency of the spiral grain selector, the effects of spiral geometries, boundary conditions and nucleation parameters on the grain selection are investigated. Simulation results reveal that the spiral geometries affect the height where the single crystal occurs in the spiral selector when volume nucleation is neglected. The average orientation deviation and grain number is relatively insensitive to volume nucleation and thermal boundary conditions around grain selector, and the thermal boundary conditions in the top of grain selector being of lesser importance.