Simulation of die filling for the wax injection process: Part I. Models for material behavior

This article is the first of two articles dedicated to the modeling of wax injection for the investment casting (or lost wax) process. It will present several models that have been established in order to describe the behavior of the wax during the injection in a die. The first part of the article presents the modeling of the rheology of the wax, and the second part presents the modeling of the thermophysical properties of the wax. These models will be validated in the second article by comparison of the results from experimental and numerical work, the numerical work being carried out using the models presented here. The quality of these models will then be assessed in the second paper.