Development of Cast Valve Bodies for High Temperature Service

This project aims to lower the costs of materials and components in concentrating solar-thermal power systems to minimize capital costs while achieving high operating temperatures. To obtain the lowest cost in castings, it's necessary to maximize their yields. This can be achieved by decreasing rejects attributable to casting defects and minimizing waste in lost material in the gating systems. The team will collect data required for computational design of the casting, design of the rigging system for the casting using computational modeling, development of melting and casting process parameters, casting fabrication, casting integrity evaluation, comparison of experimental evaluation of casting quality with results from modeling, and evaluation of microstructure and tensile properties in a critical location.