Modelling of solidification with shrinkage in vertical shell using particle method with spring-damp interaction

Modeling of the solidification process of a shrinking material injected into a vertical shell is the main focus of this work. It is motivated by the problems in the filling processes of the explosive material in bullet or artillery shells where formation of void occurs. In this study, a particle method was employed to simulate the solidification process. A spring-damp interaction was introduced in order to flexibly create solid links for solidification of freely-moving fluid particles. The material properties in this paper mostly followed those of commercially-available paraffin wax. The phase of particle (i.e. liquid, mushy, and elastic solid) was categorized using the enthalpy method. The change of wax properties in the mushy zone (particle consists of liquid and solid parts) was assumed to be linear to the temperature. The transient numerical simulation was used to simulate the process of solidification with the contraction of material volume in the specified controlled boundary temperature. The numerical results showed the result of the developed model in capturing the shrinkage and formation of void in the example case.