Casting : An Analytical Approach

This book is the result of 40 years of the combined authors’ experience in mechanical and fluid dynamics engineering. It gives an overview of product and process development from the analytical standpoint. This book has not been intended to revolutionize the casting industry. The principals of fluid dynamics and static mechanics were largely developed in the nineteenth century, but process development still largely remains a trial and error method. This book is intended to underline the principals of strength of materials and fluid dynamics that are the foundation of the casting product and process development. This book has been written as a resource and design tool for product and process engineers and designers who work with aluminium castings. It combines many aspects of product and process development, which include the basic principals of static mechanics and fluid dynamics as well as completely developed applications allowing solving problems at every stage of the development process. This book has five main parts: (1) overview of casting processes, (2) fluid dynamics, (3) strength of materials, (4) sand casting, permanent mould, and die casting process development, and (5) quality control.

Dr Alexandre Reikher is a product design leader at Albany Chicago Co. Pleasant Prairie WI (USA), the company he joined in 1997. He is responsible for all aspects of product design, Finite Element and Computational Fluid Dynamics analysis. Dr Reikher received his PhD in Engineering from Kennedy Western University (USA) in 2005 and a Master of Science from Kishinev Politechnic Institute (USSR, Moldova) in 1985. He has 20 years experience in the die cast industry.

Dr Michael R. Barkhudarov is the Vice President of Research & Development at Flow Science, Inc., Santa Fe, NM (USA), the company he joined in 1994. As Vice President of Research & Development, he is responsible for all aspects of extension and advancement of the company’s core computational fluid dynamics technology. Dr Barkhudarov received his PhD in Material Science from the University of Sheffield (UK) in 1995 and a Masters of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Lomonosov State University of Moscow in 1985.