A 3D coupled hydro-mechanical granular model for the prediction of hot tearing formation

A new 3D coupled hydro-mechanical granular model that simulates hot tearing formation in metallic alloys is presented. The hydro-mechanical model consists of four separate 3D modules. (I) The Solidification Module (SM) is used for generating the initial solid-liquid geometry. Based on a Voronoi tessellation of randomly distributed nucleation centers, this module computes solidification within each polyhedron using a finite element based solute diffusion calculation for each element within the tessellation. (II) The Fluid Flow Module (FFM) calculates the solidification shrinkage and deformation-induced pressure drop within the intergranular liquid. (III) The Semi-solid Deformation Module (SDM) is used to simulate deformation of the granular structure via a combined finite element / discrete element method. In this module, deformation of the solid grains is modeled using an elasto-viscoplastic constitutive law. (IV) The Failure Module (FM) is used to simulate crack initiation and propagation with the fracture criterion estimated from the overpressure required to overcome the capillary forces at the liquid-gas interface. The FFM, SDM, and FM are coupled processes since solid deformation, intergranular flow, and crack initiation are deeply linked together. The granular model predictions have been validated against bulk data measured experimentally and calculated with averaging techniques.