Numerical simulation and shrinkage defects prediction of a turbine blade investment casting

By adopting the solid modeling software SoldEdge and the enmeshment software SRIFCast as the pre-processing platform, a Ni based alloy turbine blade was three-dimensionally modeled and automatically enmeshed. A software code for the numerical simulation of fluid flow and heat transfer was developed. The Xue criterion and the Niyama criterion were used to predict the position of the shrinkage defect occurring in the solidification process of the turbine blade. The results showed that both Xue and Niyama criteria could precisely predict the shrinkage defects in the Ni based alloy turbine blade. This indicates that the numerical simulation is a significant tool in improving the casting quality.