Continued developments in the casting techniques in the first half of the 20th, caused the invention of horizontal centrifugal casting method to produce pipes which is gradually replaced instead of sand casting method. ductile iron pipes which are casting by same method in the De’lavuad machine, are being used as the standard pipes in modern drinking water and wastewater networks for years. Investigation of heat transfer during the solidification of metal in centrifugal casting devices is important in connection with the development of advanced technologies for producing various types of castings such as ductile iron pipes. The quality of casting is closely related to the distribution of the surface temperature of mold cavity. On the other hand, the mold temperature changes rapidly with time and because of this temperature variation, steep thermal gradients and high stresses are generated. It is well known that the major reasons for failure of the mold is thermal fatigue when the cast is produced with the mold. So the distribution of the surface temperature of mold cavity has a direct affect on the quality of the casting and the life of the mold. Using numerical technology to predict the temperature distribution of various parts of the mold and its variation, is very important to improve the casting quality, increase the service life of mold and reduce costs.The main goal of this dissertation is thermal simulation of horizontal centrifugal casting to produce ductile iron pipe by using finite element method. The process is simulated in ANSYS commercial software developing related ANSYS codes (macros). In this research a numerical axisymmetric model of the pipe and mold is proposed, and history of the thermal distribution in cast and mold during solidification and thermal cycle of casting is obtained.In the simulation, latent heat due to solidification, thermal resistance in metal-mold interface due to mold coating and air gap, initial and boundary conditions proportional to practical conditions and thermophysical properties of material which are function of temperature, are also considered. The comparison to results of the thermal simulation show good agreement with the experimental results conducted in this study and numerical results by the numerical results found in the literature. The results can be used as input data for the numercial model to estimate thermal fatigue life of a permanent mold.The results of simulation have shown that, the thermal resistance of the air gap and mold coating have a significant effect on the temperature distribution in the pipe and the mold. Pouring process causes temperature gradients in the radial and axial direction in mold and cast. Key Words Horizontal centrifugal casting, Heat transfer, Thermal simulation, FE Analysis
