Control-Volume Finite Element Analysis of Phase Change During Direct Chill Casting

A fully implicit control-volume finite element method is used to analyze the phase change during DC casting of aluminum alloy. The mathematical model is based on the integral form of the enthalpy equation. A Eulerian-Lagrangian transformation, together with a deforming grid technique, is introduced to efficiently track the evolution of the physical domain. The temperature distribution predicted by the numerical model is in good agreement with that measured in previous experiments. [S0022-1481(00)00502-8]