Solidification and Microstructure Simulation of A356 Aluminum Alloy Casting

To obtain an A356 aluminum alloy casting with a uniform structure and no internal shrinkage defects, ProCAST software is used to set different filling and solidification process parameters for an A356 aluminum alloy casting with large wall thickness differences, And multiple simulations are conducted to obtain optimized casting process; then, based on the process, the microstructure of the thickest and thinnest part of the casting are simulated. The size, morphology, and distribution of the simulated microstructure of the thinnest part and the thickest part of the casting are very similar. The simulated microstructure is similar to that of the actual casting. This shows that castings with uniform structure and no internal shrinkage defects can be obtained through the optimized casting process .