The overall goal of this proposal is the development of computer aided design and control methodology for the metal casting process. This proposal continues previous research which made successful progress towards this overall goal. The specific objectives of the research in this proposal are to complete the development of a computer software package to simulate solidification of metal castings and to improve the utility of the package for control of the process. The computer simulation package will aid in the design of the casting and of the casting manufacturing process. New research will investigate the use of acoustic emission sensing for monitoring and control of the casting process and casting quality. In addition, experimental data will be developed for use in the software package, investigation will be made of metal-mold wall dilation for predicting the relationship between mold pattern geometry and the resulting casting geometry, and high efficiency computational techniques will be investigated. The results of the proposed research should provide useful methodology and software for an important U.S. industry, i.e., the foundry industry, and should contribute to improve efficiency and quality in castings manufacturing. The work complements joint research to be conducted at another university (University of Alabama).
