International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology (IRJET)

e-ISSN: 2395-0056

Volume: 02 Issue: 04 | July-2015

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Yield Improvement of Cast Part Using Computer Aided Casting

Simulation
Mohamad Riyaz S H1, Prasad U Raikar2
Student, Product Design and Manufacturing, PG Center VTU, Belagavi, Karnataka
Asst. Prorf., Product Design and Manufacturing, PG Center VTU, Belagavi, Karnataka
1

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Abstract Casting Simulation may use by the

engineers in foundry to assure quality of cast parts and
yield optimization without charging out shop floor
trails, it also helps engineers to analyzing and
optimizing of feedability of a casting during design
phase. Casting simulation helps to visualize mould
filling, solidification of casting and to predict the hot
spot location where internal defects such as shrinking
porosity. An internal defect occurs at the time of
solidification, these internal defects can be eliminated
by proper design of feed system. Yield is the ability of
casting to manufacture acceptable casting in effective
manner. Improved yield offers many benefits as
material cost, better process control. By using computer
casting simulation, an optimum gating and feeding
system can be designed to improve yield, quality of
casting and also eliminate internal defects. In this
paper feed system is designed to eliminate hot spot
location from the casting of pulp valve body part that is
Guide face.

Key Words: Yield, hot spot, casting simulation, feed

system.
1. INTRODUCTION
Casting is a one of process of manufacturing used
to make complex shapes of metal materials in mass
production and/or individual production. There are two
stages in casting, one is filling process and another is
solidification of cast, in casting. In casting process, gating
system consists of pouring cup, runner, sprue, sprue well
and ingate or gates, which is designed to guide liquid
metal filling into the mould cavity. Risers are used to
compensate shrinkage caused by casting while
solidification of cast part. At casting process, design flow
system is important for production of quality and
efficiency of a product. [1]

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It is difficult to avoid that many different defects

occur in casting, such as blow holes, internal porosity and
improper filling. Improving the cast quality becomes
important role. Casting quality is depending on the proper
gating/riser system design. Therefore there is a need for
use of a computer-aided casting simulation tool with CAD,
and optimization functions to ensure the quality of casting.
The bottlenecks and non value added time in casting
development can be minimized by adopting computeraided methods, solid modeling and casting simulation
technologies. [2]

1.1 Gating System

In general the term used for describing the cross
sectional area of the gating components is known as
Gating Ratio, generally defined as the ratio of sprue area
to the runner area to total gate area.[1][3]
Gating systems can be classified into two types and they
are:
1. Pressurized gating system.
2. Non-Pressurized gating system.
Non-Pressurized gating system:
Where the restriction in the flow of the fluid is
near to the spruce is known as Non-Pressurized gating
system. Here the choke of this type of the system is near
sprue or at the end of the sprue or exactly below the sprue
where the solid impurities are less and the metal tends to
solidify at faster rate uses this type of gating system.
Pressurized gating system:
A pressurized gating system is known to as which
maintain the back pressure on the gating system by
restricting the fluid flow at the gates, this type of gating
generally requires the total gate area not to be greater
than the area of the sprue. Choke is a very important area
in the gating system where it determines the mould filling
time for the metals with huge amount of solid impurities
generally uses the pressurized gating system.

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e-ISSN: 2395-0056

Volume: 02 Issue: 04 | July-2015

p-ISSN: 2395-0072

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1.2 Feeding Technology

Riser is a reservoir to hold an extra metal which
compensate the liquid metal in the mould for the
shrinkage solidification. It also helps in good quality
casting which are free from the cavities both internal and
external shrinkage cavities. There are some five
requirements of the riser and they are. [3]
It is to be the portion which has to be solidified at
last.
It should promote the directional solidification
and the solidification should end in the riser itself.
Correct volume of the molten metal so as to
compensate shrinkage.
It should completely cover the casting section
which is to be fed.
It should ensure maximum yield as much as
possible.
Chvorinovs Formula: The time for solidification of
castings given by

the liquid and the solid as they cool, and gravity. The
possible feeding mechanisms are illustrated in Fig.1 [4]

Fig. 1 Schematic representation of the feeding

mechanisms in a solidifying casting. [4]

2. CASTING SIMULATION FRAMEWORK

Yield improvement of cast can be done by using
casting simulation programs. The following Fig.2
represents simulation framework for feeder design and
optimization. [2]

Where,
K= Constant
V= Volume of casting in mm
A= Surface area of casting in mm2
Inscribed Circle method:
This method was developed by Heuvers. He
obtained the riser diameter by identifying the largest
circle (hot spot) that can be formed in the section to be
fed, and the riser diameter is obtained by multiplying the
diameter of the largest circle it normally ranges from1.5 to
3.
Modulus Method:
The modulus of a casting or a feeder is simply
defined as the ratio of the volume of the riser to the
surface area through which the heat is taken out.

Where,
Mc = Modulus of the casting
From the Chvorinovs rule the freezing time of the casting
is proportional to modulus square.
And if the modulus of feeder exceeds the 1.2 of the
modulus of casting then it is satisfactory in most of the
circumstances.
Feeding Risers, or appendages, are added to a casting in
order to feed the shrinkage in a casting. Solidification
takes place simultaneously in both the casting and risers,
and liquid flows from the risers to feed the casting. The
flow is driven by solidification shrinkage, contraction of
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Fig. 2 Framework for feeder design and optimization [2]

The first step in framework is part solid modeling.

To do cast simulation first a CAD model of part
being casted has to be prepare, and also feed
system that is runner bar, ingate, risers also be
prepared in CAD. These CAD models saved into
standard .STL format.
The second step in framework is the feeder
design, which is carried out by finding suitable
position or location to connect or match the

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feeder, calculating its dimensions, and preparing

it in solid model and attaching it to part model.
The third step is feedability analysis is carried out
by flow simulation and solidification simulation
which is followed by indentifying presence of hot
spots inside the casting and connection between
feed paths. Before simulation it is important to
give material property of cast material, mould
property to the part.
The forth step is in framework, if any defects are
occurring, then feeder design (riser design)
modified. If any defects are not visualized then the
design is good. If quality of cast cannot be
improve by feeder design, and then cast part
design has to be modified.
Finally, casting yield is calculated and compared
with other design, and one which gives higher
yield is used for implementation.

Specific heat
Density

1075.288 J/kg-k
1521.71 kg/m3

The following Fig. 3 shows the solidification simulation of

Guide face casting,

3. CASTING SIMULATION
Casting simulation is carried out in this work, by
use of SOLID-Cast software which is created by, Finite
Solution Inc. This program works based on finite
difference method (FDM). In finite difference method
mesh is rectangular in shape and made by a series of cubeshaped blocks which are called as nodes. SOLID-Cast
software has built in flow simulation program that is
FLOW-Cast. SOLID-Cast helps to simulate solidification
and FLOW-Cast helps in flow simulation of casting.
Simulation in this paper is done on Guide face
which is a body part of pulp valve, material of guide face is
cast iron.

3.1 Solidification Simulation of Guide Face

Fig. 3 Solidification simulation of Guide face

From solidification simulation it is found that there are
two locations where last solidification casting taking place.
Fig. 4 shows hot spot location present in the casting, the
portion where hot sport accurse at that location casting
will solidify last. Due to directional solidification in casting
while changing its phase from liquid to solid, this last
solidification in casting accurse where volume by area will
be more. [5]

To do solidification simulation material

properties and mould properties as need, table 1 show
material properties of guide face and table 2 shows mould
properties.
Table-1: Material properties
Thermal conductivity
Specific heat
Density
Initial temperature

36.322 W/m-K
460.24 J/kg-k
7200 kg/m3
1370 oC

Solidification temperature
Freezing rang
Latent heat of fusion

1124.478 oC
89.256 oC
230115.6 J/kg

Table-2: Mould Properties

Thermal conductivity

0.59 W/m-K

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Fig. 4 Hot sopt in Guide face

This hot spot can be removed by using Riser; From the
Chvorinovs rule the freezing time of the casting is
proportional to modulus square. Therefore riser has to
design to remove hot spot, the riser size should be such
that the last solidification take place in it, if defect accurse
in riser, it not lead any problem although riser is removed
later from casting. [6]

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3.2 Solidification Simulation with Riser

The modules of riser should be more than the
modules of casting or the modules of region where hot
spot present. Here Riser is designed by taking modules of
riser is 1.5 of casting modules that is Mr=1.5Mc. The
following Fig. 5 shows simulation result of Guide face with
Riser.

Fig. 6 Hotspot location in Guide face with riser

It is seen that after placing riser between two hot spots
which are present in guide face without riser, those hot
spots are moved in to the riser, and remaining casting part
will be sound casting means defect free.

4. Yield calculation
Casting yield is defined as ratio of casting mass to
actually mass of the metal has entered into the mold
cavity. This is expressed by following equation. [6]
Cy = [Wc/(Wc+Wg)]100 %
Where,
Wc = weight of casting the material
Wg = weight of the feed system (spure, runner, riser)
Yield of Guide face casting
Weight of the casting = 12.2kg
Weight of feed system = 5.15kg
Cy = [12.2/(12.2+5.15)]100
Cy = 70.31%

5. CONCLUSIONS
Fig. 5 Solidification simulation of Guide face with Riser
From solidification simulation of Guide face with riser it is
found that the last solidification location is in riser, the
below Fig. 6 show the hot spot location in guide face
casting after using riser.

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Computer aided casting simulation is essential

tool for casting defects production and troubleshooting
those defects and cast optimization. It helps to assure
quality of casting and yield improvement without doing
shop floor trails.
The proper design of riser and specific location of
riser in casting part helps not only to provide material to
casting while shrinking on solidification, but also helps to
remove hot spot from the cast part.
From simulation of guide face with riser it is
concluded that the designed riser, and gating system, the
chances of getting shrinking defect is in riser. From this
design yield of casting will be 70.31%.
By carrying out casting simulation, lot of material,
time and cost can be saved which are required in shop
floor trials. From casting simulation casting products can
be develop very fast and time required to development of
cast parts will be low.

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REFERENCES
[1] Richard W. Heine, Carl R. Loper, Philip C. Rosenthal,
Principles of Metal Casting, Tata McGraw Hill, 1976.
p 1-22, 178-253, 491-506, 557-572.
[2] B. Ravi, Durgesh Joshi, Feedability Analysis and
Optimisation Driven by Casting Simulation, Indian
Foundry Journal, 53(6), pp. 71-78, 2007
[3] A.K. Chakrabarti, Casting Technology and Casting
Alloys, Eastern economy edition, PHI Learning Pvt.
Ltd. 2011, pp. 1-84.
[4] Qingyou Han, Shrinkage Porosity and Gas Porosity,
ASM Handbook, Vol. 15: Casting, ASM Handbook
Committee, 2008, p 370-374.

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[5] B.S. Nagendra Parashar, R.K. Mittal Elements of

Manufacturing Processes, eastern economy edition,
PHI, 2011, pp. 203-229.
[6] Rabindra Behera, Kayal.S, Sutradhar.G, Solidification
behavior and detection of Hotspots in Aluminium
Alloy castings: Computer Aided Analysis and
experimental validation, International Journal Of
Applied Engineering Research, Volume 1, No 4, ISSN09764259, 2011, pp. 715-726.
[7] Mayur Sutaria, B. Ravi, Computation of casting
solidification feed-paths using gradient vector method
with various boundary conditions, The International
Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology
October 2014, Volume 75, Issue 1-4, pp 209-223.

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