An investigation of the chill-casting interface dynamics in production of sand-cast A319 engine blocks

[摘要] In recent years, the automotive industry has been increasing the production of small, high-power gas engines as part of several strategies to achieve the new "Corporate Average Fuel Economy" (CAFE) standards. This trend requires an improvement in the thermal and mechanical fatigue durability of the aluminium alloys used in the production of the cylinder blocks in these engines. Conventionally, solid chills are employed in areas of these castings subject to high cyclic loading to enhance the mechanical performance of the cast material - i.e. in the main bearing bulkhead. A potential means of improving the efficacy of these chills is to incorporate water cooling. To assess the effectiveness of this method, a water-cooled chill was designed and installed in a bonded-sand engine block mould package (1/4 section). The moulds were instrumented with thermocouples, to measure the evolution of temperature at key locations in the casting, and "Linear Variable Displacement Transducers" (LVDTs), to measure the gap formation at the interface between the chill and the casting. This paper summarizes, at a high level, some of the findings of this work.

[发布机构] Materials Engineering Department, University of British Columbia, 309, 6350 Stores Road, Vancouver; BC; V6T 1Z4, Canada^1

[效力级别] 计算机科学

[关键词] Chill casting;Corporate average fuel economies;High-cyclic loading;Interface dynamic;Linear variable displacement transducers;Mechanical fatigue;Mechanical performance;Water cooled chills