Reducing Melt Surface Turbulence by Employing Surge and Filter in a Conventional Non-Pressurizing Gating System: Simulation and Experiment

Abstract

Tensile strength of aluminum castings has been improved by employing surge and filter in a conventional non-pressurizing gating system. For this purpose, three non-pressurizing bottom-gating systems were designed where the first design was a simple design with no filter and no surge, in the second design filter and in the third one surge was added to the end of runner. Tensile strength, Weibull module, scanning electron microscopy, chemical analysis, and melt pattern during the mold filling were thoroughly analyzed to compare these three designs. It was observed that employing filter and surge in the gating system reduces flow kinetic energy and consequently avoid surface turbulence and air entrainment, which leads to castings with fewer defects and higher reliabilities. Finally, it found that appropriate use of surge in the running system can be as effective as employing a filter in reducing melt front velocity.

Keywords

• aluminum casting
• filter
• surge
• oxide bifilms
• failure analysis
• weibull module
• mold filling simulation