Prediction of Surface Porosity Defects in High Pressure Die Casting

High pressure die casting (HPDC) is a novel manufacturing method with capability of mass production with higher accuracy. Porosity is one of the challenging defects in final product and may be affected by jet instability and atomization during injection phase. In case of atomization a large number of droplets with high velocity impinges the colder confining walls of the casting mold and might solidify consecutively. Different time scales of the impingement of the droplets and their solidification may result in heterogeneous structures near the surface of final product. A numerical framework using volume of fluid method (VOF) and an Eulerian-Lagrangian approach is established to simulate the liquid metal jet breakup and droplet formation during the injection phase. An analytical model for droplet impact on mold walls and solidification is studied and implemented in the numerical framework. The latter enables the prediction of porosity formation near the surface of final product.