In the present work, a general implicit source-based enthalpy method is presented for the
analysis of solidification systems. The proposed approach is both robust and efficient. The per-
formance of the method is illustrated by application to a number of problems taken from recent
metallurgical literature.
phase change problems (i.e., convection effects due to where c is the specific heat, P is the density, and Tr~f is
density changes at the phase interface or density varia- an arbitrary reference temperature. When Eq. [4] is valid,
tions in the liquid phase are neglected). In such a case, it becomes possible and computationally convenient t6j to
an appropriate governing equation for the system is l~'31 reformulate the problem explicitly in terms of a liquid
OH fraction-temperature equation. The appropriate form of
-- = V.(kVT) [1] the liquid fraction-temperature relationship for the three
Ot curves is summarized in Table I(A). In contrast to
where k is a mixture conductivity given as curves A through C, curve D shows the enthalpy-
temperature relationship for a Pb-Sn hypoeutectic alloy. LTI
k = (1 - g)ks + gk~ [2] In this case, due to the effect of solute redistribution, the
assumptions of a constant latent heat of fusion and
and H is a mixture enthalpy written as temperature-dependent specific heat are not valid, and it
H = (1 - g)Hs + gH, [3] is not possible to obtain an explicit liquid fraction-
temperature relationship. Table I(B) summarizes the na-
Note that g is the volume fraction of the liquid and the ture of the enthalpy function for this alloy based on the
subscripts [~s and [~t represent solid and liquid phases, data and curve fits presented by Poirier and
respectively. Nandapurkar. [7]
In general, the enthalpy could be a function of a num-
ber of variables, such as temperature, concentration, B. Previous Work
cooling rate, etc. In many solidification models, how-
ever, the enthalpy in the mushy region can be assumed Numerical methods based on Eq. [ l ] [6'8-141 have been
to be a function of temperature alone. Four possible validated in the metallurgical literature. I4'15 lsl A number
of explicit time integration schemes have been re-
ported. LI5,16,18,191These schemes are easy to apply but may
C.R. SWAMINATHAN, Graduate Student, Department of be computationally demanding due to the stability re-
Mechanical Engineering, and V.R. VOLLER, Associate Professor,
Department of Civil and Mineral Engineering, are with the University strictions on the choice of time step. Implicit time in-
of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455. tegration schemes, on the other hand, have no time step
Manuscript submitted March 4, 1991. restrictions. The success in applying implicit schemes is
Wig Ts
eg. PURE METAL eg. STEEL
TEMPERATURE TEMPERATURE
(a) (b)
W1 H 1
"'-. T 1
~n
z
TE T~
eg. A1-4.5 Cu eg. P b - 1 0 Sn
TEMPERATURE TEMPERATURE
(c) (a)
Fig. l - - (a) through (d) Different types o f liquid fraction temperature relationships.
based on maintaining the accuracy in the results, while differences in conjunction with the Kirchhoff transfor-
at the same time avoiding excessive iterations in the so- mation Ill and an alternating direction implicit (ADI)
lution of the resulting nonlinear algebraic equations. technique 12~ to solve for the solidification of continuous
Thomas et al. I15J have investigated a variety of implicit cast steel billets and slabs. A distinctive feature of these
finite element apparent heat capacity schemes based on past efforts is that the different solution methodologies
Eq. [l] to solve for the two-dimensional isothermal so- are tailor-made to the problem at hand. In addition, these
lidification of a steel ingot. Basu and Sekhar t171 extended methodologies require user intervention to provide ap-
the implicit scheme of Shamsundar and Sparrow 19j to the propriate conservation algorithms ( e . g . , the evaluation
two-dimensional solidification of a binary A1-4.5 pct Cu of the apparent heat capacity 12'8"~51 and/or under-
alloy governed by the Scheil equation. Recently, Lally relaxation factors t~i-~3,~71).
et al. t~SJ have reported an implicit scheme using finite Recently, the authors 161 have proposed an implicit