The carbon emission in the process design stage of sand casting is evaluated and optimized by genetic algorithm. Then, the two process schemes are compared, which proves that the carbon emission can be effectively reduced by optimizing process parameters in the process design stage of sand casting. Calculating carbon emissions based on sand casting process parameters can easily determine the source of carbon emissions and find opportunities to reduce carbon emissions. By estimating and optimizing the carbon emission of sand casting process based on process parameters, the carbon emission of the process can be reduced without reducing the casting quality, which is consistent with the goal of low-carbon design. The effectiveness of this method is verified by a typical sand casting example. The results show that the total carbon emission of sand casting is reduced by 2.71%. According to the analysis results, the following conclusions are drawn:
- Among the carbon emissions of the three carbon sources, the carbon emissions of material carbon sources account for the highest proportion of the total carbon emissions, the carbon emissions of energy carbon sources account for the medium proportion of the total carbon emissions, and the carbon emissions of unexpected carbon sources account for the lowest proportion of the total carbon emissions.
- In the carbon emission of sand casting energy, the carbon emission of smelting energy consumption accounts for a large proportion. Reducing smelting energy consumption is the key for sand casting enterprises to implement energy conservation and emission reduction.
- After optimization, the carbon emission of materials is significantly reduced. The results show that the independent process parameters of sand casting are the key factors affecting the carbon emission of materials; Similarly, the independent process parameters of sand casting are the key factors affecting energy carbon emission; The independent process parameters of sand casting are the key factors affecting the unexpected carbon emission.
The estimation of carbon emissions can be used to help designers create low-carbon casting process parameters in the sand casting process design stage. This paper mainly models the carbon emission according to the process parameters of sand casting, calculates the carbon emission of three carbon sources in the process, and points out the possible energy-saving points in the process.
The low-carbon process design method of sand casting based on process parameters is proposed. However, in the whole process design stage of sand casting, how to optimize the design process of gating system to reduce carbon emission has not been studied. In further research, the low-carbon process design of process gating system will be studied.