Large Die Casting Process Map (2D)

What the 2D view shows

A top view of a large thin-walled high-pressure die casting (1.6 m x 1.1 m plate with ribs and boss pads). Scrub or play the process time: the metal front fills from the gate, cools, and freezes. Switch the map to see local solidification time, section modulus and the three defect risks (cold shut, gas porosity, shrinkage porosity). The graphs show what the 3D view cannot: the Chvorinov curve, the plunger shot profile, the temperature of any clicked point and the filled / solidified area over time.

Equations (same module as the 3D page)

• Solidification time of a section of half-thickness M: ts = ρ H′ / ΔT · [ M / heff + M² / (2 ks) ], with 1/heff = 1/h + 0.85 · 2 sqrt(t/π) / ed; the M² term is Chvorinov's rule.
• Fill time tfill = V / (v2 Asleeve), gate speed vg = Q / (gate length x gate thickness), Reynolds ρ vg tg / μ and Weber ρ vg² tg / σ.
• Flow-front cooling: lumped energy balance with a mushy-zone apparent heat capacity; the front chokes at solid fraction 0.30 (cold-shut criterion).
• Shrinkage porosity from the minimax feeding path through the gate and the intensification pressure; gas porosity from sleeve-wave and gate-velocity entrainment, trapped by the last-to-fill regions and reduced by vacuum assist.

Honest simplifications

Textbook-level and illustrative: fill is a fast-sweeping front on a 160 x 110 grid, not a Navier-Stokes solution; the heat-transfer coefficient is a constant; defect maps are risk indices, not predicted defect counts; there is no die-thermal cycling, spray or ejection model. Do not use for real tooling decisions.

What to try

• Load Thin and cold and look at the cold-shut map.
• Raise v2 with vacuum off and watch gas risk appear in the last-fill regions.
• Fat bosses with weak squeeze: shrinkage shows in the slowest section.
• Click the map to move the probe and read its cooling curve.