DefinePK

Abstract

During solidification of molten metal in sand casting, the sensible, latent and superheat are lost to the sand. This research article focuses on waste heat recovery from solidifying molten metal and scrap preheating using the recovered heat. This is done by incorporating an intermediate heat transfer medium such as aluminium, copper and steel shots in green sand mould. These intermediate heat transfer media absorb the heat from the solidifying metal in the mold cavity; the heated shots are separated from the mold and allowed to transfer their heat energy to the metal scrap by conduction, convection and radiation. The experiments prove that 8.4 % of heat recovery is achievable by introducing copper shots with the green sand mold, compared to aluminium shots, which generates 3.7 % and steel shots achieving 3 %. This method has the potential to be instrumental in reducing the enormous amount of energy spent to melt the metal in foundries. The experiments reveal that about 84 kWh of energy can be saved by using copper shots for melting one ton of metal. Cumulative effect of this novel energy conservation method on energy costs and global warming mitigation is found to be very convincing for industrial implementation, particularly for countries such as India.