Simulation methods have contributed

Simulation methods have contributed since their origins to reach a better knowledge about the materials and themanufacturing processes, and as consequence to improve the manufacturing methods. Today, a big number ofcommercial codes are available to simulate a wide range of manufacturing processes including the metal casting.Obviously, as Bonollo and Odorizzi (2001) state, the reliability of the simulation is significantly related to theaccuracy adopted for defining the initial and boundary conditions and to the knowledge of the properties of thematerials involved. Inaccurate input data can easily lead to poor or even misleading predictions.In this sense, the ASM International Handbook Committee (2010) emphasizes the importance of the boundaryconditions to produce accurate simulations. They state that each manufacturing process has unique boundaryconditions that must be identified, understood and characterized for the specific application being simulated.Moreover, boundary conditions can be equipment specific, meaning that one furnace may not give rise to the sameboundary conditions as another furnace of a similar type used under same nominal processing conditions.