A literature review on methods to consider the mechanical behaviour of cast aluminium alloys in finite element method (FEM) simulations of cast aluminium components has been performed. The mechanical behaviour is related to several microstructural parameters achieved during the casting process. Three different methods to consider these microstructural parameters are introduced. One method predicts the mechanical behaviour of the component using casting process simulation software. The other two methods implement numerical models for the mechanical behaviour of cast aluminium into the FEM simulation. Applications of the methods are shown, including combinations with statistical methods and geometry optimisation methods. The methods are compared, and their different strengths and drawbacks are discussed.

A numerical description relating microstructure to elastic and plastic deformation behavior would make it possible to simulate the mechanical behavior of complex cast components with tailored material properties. Limited work and data have however been published regarding the connection between microstructure and plastic behavior of austempered ductile irons (ADI). In the current work the effects of austempering temperature and austempering time on the strength coefficient and the strain hardening exponent of the Hollomon equation have been investigated for two ADI alloys. The results show that the plastic behavior is highly dependent on the combination of austempering temperature and austempering time. It was found that as the austempering temperature increases both the strength coefficient and the strain hardening exponent initially decrease, but after reaching a minimum at the critical austempering temperature they show a plateau or an increase. The effect of the austempering time on the plastic behavior depends on the austempering temperature. At low austempering temperatures the strength coefficient and the strain hardening exponent decrease with increased austempering time, whereas at higher austempering temperatures they show little time dependence. These relations are explained by the microstructural transformations that take place during the austempering heat treatment.

A software which enables the incorporation of local variations in both elastic and plastic mechanical behaviour predicted by a casting process simulation into a Finite Element Method (FEM) simulation is presented. The software uses a piecewise linearization of the Hollomon or the Ludwigson equation to characterise plastic mechanical behaviour of the material on an element level throughout a component. The accuracy obtained in the linearization is investigated, and the performance of the software is studied using different input parameters. The applicability of the software is verified and demonstrated on a ductile iron component, and a simulation strategy for cast components denoted a closed chain of simulations for cast components is discussed.

The industrial demand for increased component performance with concurrent reductions in component weight, development times and verifications using physical prototypes drives the need to use the full potential of casting and Finite Element Method (FEM) simulations to correctly predict the mechanical behavior of cast components in service. The mechanical behavior of the component is determined by the casting process, and factors as component geometry and casting process parameters are known to affect solidification and microstructure formation throughout the component and cause local variations in mechanical behavior as well as residual stresses. Though residual stresses are known to be an important factor in the mechanical behavior of the component, the importance of local mechanical behavior is not well established and the material is typically considered homogeneous throughout the component. This paper deals with the influence of solidification and solid state transformation on microstructure formation and the effect of local microstructure variations on the mechanical behavior of the cast component in service. The current work aims to investigate the coupling between simulation of solidification, microstructure and local variations in mechanical behavior and stress-strain simulation. This is done by performing several simulations of a ductile iron component using a recently developed simulation strategy, a closed chain of simulations for cast components, able to predict and describe the local variations in not only elastic but also plastic behavior throughout the component by using microstructural parameters determined by simulations of microstructural evolution in the component during the casting process. In addition the residual stresses are considered. The results show that the FEM simulation results are significantly affected by including microstructure based mechanical behavior. When the applied load is low and the component is subjected to stress levels well below the yield strength of the material, the residual stresses highly affects the simulation results while the effect of local material behavior is low. As the applied load increases and the stress level in the component approaches and passes the yield strength, the effect of residual stresses diminishes while the effect of local mechanical behavior increases. In particular the predicted strain level is heavily affected by the use of local mechanical behavior. It is proposed that it is important to include both local mechanical behavior and residual stresses in stress-strain simulations to predict the true mechanical behavior of the component.

The effects of incorporating local mechanical behaviour into a structural analysis of a cast ductile iron component are investigated. A recently presented simulation strategy, the closed chain of simulations for cast components, is applied to incorporate local behaviour predicted by a casting process simulation into a Finite Element Method (FEM) structural analysis, and the effects of the strategy on predicted component behaviour and simulation time are evaluated. The results are compared to using a homogeneous material description. A material reduction method is investigated, and the effects of material reduction and number of linearization points are evaluated.

The results show that local mechanical behaviour may significantly affect the predicted behaviour of the component, and a homogeneous material description fails to express the stress-strain distribution caused by the local variations in mechanical behaviour in the component. The material reduction method is able to accurately describe this effect while only slightly increasing the simulation time. It is proposed that local variations in mechanical behaviour are important to consider in structural analyses of the mechanical behaviour of ductile iron components.

The coupling between simulations of solidification, microstructure and local mechanical behaviour and simulation of stress-strain behaviour is studied by applying a recently developed simulation strategy to a high pressure die cast aluminium component. In the simulation strategy, named a closed chain of simulations for cast components, the mechanical behaviour throughout the component is determined locally by a casting process simulation. The entire casting process, including mould filling and solidification, is simulated to predict the formation of microstructure and residual stresses throughout the component, and material characterization models are applied to relate microstructural features to local elastic and plastic mechanical material behaviour. The local material behaviour is incorporated into a finite element method (FEM) stress-strain simulation of a realistic load case of the component in service.

In the current contribution the influences of local variations in mechanical behaviour and residual stresses on the component behaviour are investigated. The simulation results for local microstructure and mechanical behaviour are compared to experimental results, and the predicted local mechanical behaviour is incorporated on an element level into the FEM simulation. The numerical effect of the variations in mechanical behaviour is quantified by comparing the results achieved using local behaviour and homogeneous behaviour. The influence of residual stresses predicted by the casting process simulation on the component behaviour is also studied.

The casting process simulation is found to accurately predict the local variations in microstructure throughout the component, and the local variations in mechanical behaviour are well described. The numerical results show that casting process simulation and modelling of microstructure formation, material behaviour and residual stresses are important contributions to correctly predict the behaviour of a cast aluminium component in service. This motivates the use of the proposed simulation strategy, and show the importance of incorporating materials science and casting process simulations into structural analyses of cast components. It is discussed that integration of these areas, e.g. using the closed chain of simulations, is important in order to increase the accuracy of FEM simulations and the product development efficiency in the future.

Due to design and process-related factors, there are local variations in the microstructure and mechanical behaviour of cast components. This work establishes a Digital Image Correlation (DIC) based method for characterisation and investigation of the effects of such local variations on the behaviour of a high pressure, die cast (HPDC) aluminium alloy. Plastic behaviour is studied using gradient solidified samples and characterisation models for the parameters of the Hollomon equation are developed, based on microstructural refinement. Samples with controlled microstructural variations are produced and the observed DIC strain field is compared with Finite Element Method (FEM) simulation results. The results show that the DIC based method can be applied to characterise local mechanical behaviour with high accuracy. The microstructural variations are observed to cause a redistribution of strain during tensile loading. This redistribution of strain can be predicted in the FEM simulation by incorporating local mechanical behaviour using the developed characterization model. A homogeneous FEM simulation is unable to predict the observed behaviour. The results motivate the application of a previously proposed simulation strategy, which is able to predict and incorporate local variations in mechanical behaviour into FEM simulations already in the design process for cast components.