The research proposed will investigate some important thermoelastic effects in the solidification of castings. The quality of a casting depends critically on the thermal boundary conditions at the interface between the casting and the mold. These are largely governed by the contact resistance there, which, in turn, depends on the local contact pressure. This pressure is affected by the thermal distortion of the partially solidified casting, thereby leading to a coupled thermal and mechanical problem. Experience shows that this coupling can led to an instability which results in profile errors in a nominally plane cast surface. The wavelength of the instability which is most favored to grow under such conditions. The of more realistic constitutive laws and of thermal deformations of the mold will be studied. A similar investigation will be carried out for axisymmetric castings in the form of cylinders and spheres.*** //
