Thermal Properties PF Bonded Moulding Sands

Accurate determination of thermophysical properties of moulding and core sands is essential for reliable numerical simulation of casting solidification and cooling processes. In this study, the temperature-dependent thermal properties of a quartz sand mould bonded with a phenol–formaldehyde resole resin were investigated using a hybrid experimental approach combining laboratory thermal analysis and in-situ measurements under real casting conditions. Specific heat capacity was determined by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), while thermal diffusivity and thermal conductivity were measured using the Laser Flash Analysis (LFA) method. Additionally, an analytical method based on the Gaussian error function was applied to evaluate thermophysical parameters directly from temperature fields recorded during the solidification and cooling of a copper plate casting. The in-situ measurements revealed pronounced temperature and position-dependent variations in thermal diffusivity, thermal conductivity, and heat accumulation coefficient, strongly influenced by residual moisture evaporation around 100 °C. The values obtained from the in-situ method showed good agreement with LFA results at room temperature, while providing additional insight into the dynamic behaviour of the mould material under realistic thermal loading. Comparison of experimental results with numerical simulations performed in MAGMA software demonstrated that default database parameters significantly overestimate heat transfer in the sand mould, leading to discrepancies in predicted cooling rates and solidification times. The results confirm that thermophysical properties of organically bonded moulding sands cannot be treated as constant values and should be implemented as temperature-dependent parameters in simulation models. The proposed combined methodology enables more accurate characterization of mould materials and improves the reliability of numerical predictions of casting processes.