CD-adapco, a developer of CAE programs for simulating fluid flow, heat transfer and stress, has teamed with a German research institute to introduce a new technique they claim will “revolutionize” industrial casting process simulation. Their joint development, STAR-Cast, offers “unrivaled ease-of-use and automation to the simulation of casting processes, and introduces a new level of multi-disciplinary sophistication to simulation results,” they state.
The co-developer is Access, an independent R&D center affiliated with the Technical University of Aachen that concentrates on scientific and industrial issues in metallurgy and materials science, particularly casting processes.
The new simulation program is an advancement of the technology that powers CD-adapco’s STAR-CCM+ and STAR-CD CAE programs. The developers indicate STAR-Cast offers a comprehensive process for multiphase casting simulation — liquid, solid and gaseous –including conjugate heat transfer, a sharp resolution of the filling front, free-surface fragmentation, motion of trapped gas bubbles in the melt, and natural convection in melt and gas.
Reportedly, STAR-Cast is an effective simulation tool for gravity sand casting, gravity (tilting) diecasting, low-pressure/counter-pressure casting, centrifugal casting, and continuous casting.
CD-adapco president Steve McDonald stated: “STAR-Cast is an entirely new concept in Casting Simulation that for the first time places industrial-strength simulation technology in the hands of foundrymen, casting designers, and tool makers.”
Access managing director Robert Guntlin said the partners’ CAE insights, materials research, and metalcasting understanding “opens the door to a new realm of simulation technology in industrial casting.”