Thermophysical Properties of Fe30Mn4Al0.9C: A Coupled Computational-Experimental Approach

Due to their low density and high toughness, compared to traditional steels, high-manganese austenitic steels are outstanding candidates across several industries like defense and automotive. Over the past few decades, modeling tools have found their way into foundries worldwide. Nonetheless, for these codes to provide trustworthy predictions, accurate input properties are required. For the composition studied (Fe30Mn4Al0.9C1Si0.5Mo), thermophysical properties are scarce in the literature. Hence, a coupled computational-experimental approach was used to determine the needed property data as function of temperature. Key properties like phase transitions, enthalpy, density, fraction solid, heat capacity (CP), latent heat and viscosity were determined using a commercially available thermodynamics calculation package. These properties were first calculated for known systems (304SS and A356), and the calculated results were compared to results from the literature. Thermophysical properties for the system of interest were then calculated. Validation for CP and liquidus and solidus temperatures was performed via differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). Detection of solidus temperature via DSC proved to be challenging, hence, a discrete-derivative analysis was conducted to determine this parameter. Mold filling and solidification simulations were performed and compared with actual castings.