Simulation of the Thermal Regime of Semi-Continuous Casting of Aluminum Alloy Ingots

In the ANSYS Fluent program, a computer simulation was performed for the production of ingots from aluminum alloy 5052 at a semi-continuous casting plant (SCCP). This method analyzed the nature of the melt temperature distribution in the metal path with two types of refractory coatings and estimated the heat loss during the melt passage from the mixer to the mold of the casting machine. The findings reveal that during the experimental verification of the casting of ingots, the results of the direct temperature measurements differed by no more than 2%–3% from the temperatures obtained by modeling, and the replacement of metal path cartridges made of refractory concrete with a density of 2090 kg/m³ for concrete with a density of 1300 kg/m³ reduced heat losses during the casting of ingots on the SCCP and reduced the temperature of the start of casting of alloy 5052 by 45°C, decreasing the hydrogen concentration in castings from 0.18–0.19 to 0.15 cm³/100 g.