Fabrication stresses inducing cracking of a mould made of copper

Melting processes may induce strains and stresses that can lead to a nondesirable configuration. In this paper the manufacturing process of a mould used for the fabrication of anodes has been analysed using a finite element model. The main task is to detect whether there are any mechanical reasons that could justify the appearance of defects such as: cracks, nerves and excessive bending and/or warping. To this end, a comparative analysis between two different mould geometries has been performed. Some experimental data have been taken into account to adjust the characteristic parameters of the problem under consideration.