Digital twin integrating cell data for HPDC process modelling

A single process cycle in high-pressure die casting involves a series of operations with complex flow, thermal, and metallurgical phenomena. Most commercial simulation software includes the mathematical framework to handle those. However, the user still needs to define a large number of coefficients to reproduce the magnitude of the physics and may also have to program functions to better replicate reality. This calibration effort can be an enabler for higher-fidelity simulations to efficiently develop new high-quality products, especially in the high-integrity field. This paper presents a data collection effort on a connected high-pressure vacuum die casting research and development cell that is fed into a process simulation. First, data was collected from the ladling robot, die casting machine, and spray actuator to provide an accurate representation of a typical cycle. Secondly, heat transfer behaviour was estimated for the cold chamber during pouring as well as for die spray to capture the heat exchanges in the system, as a complement to previously-acquired data for melt-to-die heat transfer. User functions were then programmed in ProCAST® to add the required features. Using this data, simplified cyclic simulations were run to calculate the expected steady-state die temperature regime and compare it to experimental data. Finally, a single-cycle flow and thermal simulation was run including the ladle pouring into the cold chamber. This works highlights some of the challenges and opportunities associated with a functional, off-line digital twin for high-pressure vacuum die casting, used as a tool to design new products and processes.