EFFECT OF COOLING RATE ON THE SOLIDIFICATION OF A CYLINDRICAL CHANNELSECTION

This paper presents a model of solidification for a fibre-reinforced c ircular cylindrical channel section in plane strain. The material is t reated as a thermoelastic orthotropic solid in the solid phase and as an anisotropic viscous fluid in the fluid phase. Cooling from a curved surface causes a solidification front to move radially through the th ickness until solidification is complete. Deformation which occurs in the liquid phase becomes 'locked in' at solidification, thus affecting the shape and residual stress in the final solid section; these affec ts are quantified. It is found that part of this residual deformation is proportional to the cooling rate, and the effects of cooling from t he inside and from the outside are compared. For a very thin sector th e residual deformation is independent of the rate and direction of coo ling, but for a sector with small internal surface radius both the rat e and the direction of cooling have a pronounced effect. (C) 1997 Else vier Science Limited.