Software Simulation of Hot Tearing

The brittleness of a solidifying alloy in a temperature range near the solidus temperature has been recognised since the fifties as the mechanism responsible for hot tearing. Due to this brittlenes, the metal will crack under even small amounts of strain in that temperature range. We see these hot tears in castings close to hot centres, where the level of strain is often too high.Although the hot tearing mechanism is well understood, until now it has been difficult to do much to reduce the hot tearing tendency in a casting. In the seventies, good hot tearing criteria were developed by considering the solidification rate and the strain rate of the hot tear prone areas. But, until recently it was only possible to simulate the solidification rate, so that the criteria could not be used effectively.Today, with new software developments, it is possible to also simulate the strain rate in the hot tear prone areas. With this additional information, the criteria can, for the first time, be used to their full potential.The purpose of this paper is to first give an introduction to a stress/strain simulation procedure that can be used in any foundry. Then, some results how to predict the hot cracking tendency in a casting are shown, and the use of simulation to reduce this tendency is illustrated.