A well designed runner and feeding system should produce castings with minimal defects and low pour weight. This thesis investigates how the filling regime and solidification of the mould influences defects in the castings produced from that mould. Design guidelines to reduce such defects are proposed and tested. An existing shrinkage fault in a Grey Iron disc brake casting is simulated using a commercial finite-difference computer program. Three criteria are used to predict the defect and the effect of changes to the feeder geometry. Critical Fraction Solidification analysis is used to determine whether the feeder remains in liquid contact with the casting during solidification and this approach is shown to correctly predict the presence or absence of porosity* The feeder block is extended below the ingate of the casting to improve liquid contact between the casting and feeder without significantly increasing the feeder mass. Plant trials confirm the change to the feeder eliminates the porosity defect. The runner system and mould venting for a thin walled Ductile Iron casting are investigated. Trials show that by setting the total mould vent area to be greater than the net ingate area of the castings, the cold-shut frequency is halved. A method for runner system design based on peak linear flow velocity in the runner during mould filling is proposed. A new pressurised runner system produces castings with significantly fewer defects and reduced pour weight when runner areas are designed to maintain peak velocity below 1 m/s. Peak velocity and magnesium levels are demonstrated to be critical factors in the elimination of cold-shut defects. A pressurised runner system is also shown to isolate inclusion defects from castings more effectively than an unpressurised system. From this work, a technique is proposed which allows the yield of an existing runner and feeder system for iron castings to be improved with confidence in the results.

Thesis (M.S.)--Worcester Polytechnic Institute. / Keywords: CRP; Thixocasting; Rheocating; Semisolid. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 46-48).

Thesis (M.S.)--Worcester Polytechnic Institute. / Keywords: hydrogen removal; metal cleaning; particle removal. Includes bibliographical references (p. 42-43).

No description available.

No description available.

In this study, two semi-analytical models of microsegregation were developed to predict the concentration fields of solute in the liquid and solid regions for dendritic solidification of binary metallic alloys. Both models assume that the growing dendrites are cylindrical in shape. This assumption is more realistic compared to the common assumptions of plate-like dendrites that most of the earlier researchers employed in their microsegregation modeling study. The solute redistribution profile, in the developing solid layer, necessary to determine the back diffusion parameter was derived from Fick's second law for the model without coarsening. The application of this parameter in a wide range of conditions and the use of its basic form in the model with coarsening was verified. The concept of coordinate transformation and enhancement of back-diffusion Fourier number were used in deriving the model which took into account the coarsening of dendrites. The models are then extended to deal with rapid solidification, peritectic transformations and multi-component systems and the results were compared with relevant experimental data. A good agreement between the model predictions and experimental results was found. / The second part of this study was focused on developing a fully numerical microsegregation model. The numerical model built upon a previously proposed phase change model which relied upon a coordinate transformation technique. The model was extended to deal with moving boundaries with solute diffusion. A suitable computational procedure was developed to solve the model equations which are strongly coupled to each other. To verify the accuracy of the present algorithm with regard to the capability of tracking the moving interfaces, analytical solution of the Stefan problem was used for verification purposes. A good agreement between the model predictions and the analytical solution was found. Evolution of concentration fields during solidification was calculated in the growing solid as well as in the shrinking liquid regions for rectangular, cylindrical and spherical dendrite geometries. The effects of various cooling conditions and relevant parametric values on microsegregation were analyzed and discussed.

No description available.

Significant reductions in the number of defects in parts produced by investment casting can be obtained by improving the flow of the molten metal during pouring. Studies have been done at Oregon State University with simulated casting techniques to determine optimal mold configurations. Better mold layouts have been shown to improve this flow. The purpose of this project was to develop a computer imaging system that would aid in reliably evaluating these experiments. The completed system consisted of a computer, a frame grabber, video equipment and operating software. Videotapes made of the fluid flow in the mold during the pouring process were replayed into the computer and evaluated. Custom software reduced the collected data to a representative evaluation number. Results show that the computer evaluations are reliable and reproducible, but applications are limited because of the cost, speed and power of available computer systems. / Graduation date: 1994

No description available.

Master of Science in Dentistry / This work was digitised and made available on open access by the University of Sydney, Faculty of Dentistry and Sydney eScholarship . It may only be used for the purposes of research and study. Where possible, the Faculty will try to notify the author of this work. If you have any inquiries or issues regarding this work being made available please contact the Sydney eScholarship Repository Coordinator - ses@library.usyd.edu.au