Optimized Development Process for Cast Components

Sammanfattning: In developing trucks, cast components of low weight and high durability need to be developed and produced. Cast components represent an estimated 10-15 percent of the total weight of a truck. There is a strong coupling between the production process and the mechanical properties of a cast component such as it's strength. Bearing this coupling in mind is an important element in the design process. A generic strategy for the optimal design of cast components, taking account of complex multi-physics problems and involving analyses of successively increasing complexity, is discussed. The term Level-Of-Detail (LOD) is introduced allowing the requirements on models at different stages in the development process to be described in a structured manner. Several investigations within this context illustrating and clarifying the basic ideas involved are presented. First, the sizing optimization of a model component with respect to both the mechanical and to thermal response is taken up as an example of analysis at a low LOD level. A novel thermal measure for production fitness is introduced here. Secondly, a topology optimization is presented as an example of a medium-level LOD analysis. Thirdly, a novel formulation of the thermo-metallurgical problem within casting, involving the modelling of solidification and the segregation of species, is considered as an illustration of analysis at a high LOD level. An efficient finite element formulation of the coupled problem in space-time terms is also developed and investigated.