The paper presents the results of studies on the development of manufacturing technologies to cast hearth plates operating in chamber
furnaces for heat treatment. Castings made from the heat-resistant G-X40CrNiSi27-4 steel were poured in hand-made green sand molds.
The following operations were performed: computer simulation to predict the distribution of internal defects in castings produced by the
above mentioned technology with risers bare and coated with exothermic and insulating sleeves, analysis of each variant of the technology,
and manufacture of experimental castings. As a result of the conducted studies and analysis it was found that the use of risers with
exothermic sleeves does not affect to a significant degree the quality of the produced castings of hearth plates, but it significantly improves
the metal yield.
The paper presents an application of the modified rigid finite element method to analysis of the dynamics of slender structures. The equations of motion are formulated for a system discretized by means of the method, and discussion is limited to planar systems and large deformations. Slender elements can be found in offshore engineering as lines, cables and risers. In these cases the hydrostatic influence of water and sea currents has to be taken into account. While analyzing dynamics of risers it may also be necessary to consider the flow of fluid inside the riser. The influence of hydrodynamic coefficients and the velocity of the internal flow of fluid on displacements and forces is presented.