| Summary: | The aluminum alloy scroll is one of the key parts of the scroll compressors widely used in the
air-conditioning, refrigeration, and heat pump systems. In this work, the semi-solid squeeze casting (SSSC)
process was used to fabricate the aluminum alloy scroll. The effects of process parameters including the pouring
temperature, mold temperature, and squeezing velocity on the filling and solidification behaviors of the alloys
were investigated through simulations based on the power law cut-off (PLCO) material model. Results show that
there is a significant increase in the flow velocity of the slurry, and the area of the high-speed region enlarges
with the increase of the pouring temperature. The homogeneity of the temperature and velocity fields in the slurry
is improved with an increase in mold temperature. Both the filling time and its variation rate decrease with an
increase in squeezing velocity. The maximum solidification time exhibits a linear variation with the increase in
pouring temperature. The shrinkage area is decreased by increasing the mold temperature. The optimal process
parameters of the SSSC process were obtained from simulation analysis, which are the pouring temperature of
595 °C, mold temperature of 350 °C, and squeezing velocity of 0.3 m·s-1. Moreover, the qualified scroll casting
was fabricated using the SSSC process under the optimal process parameters.
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