Materials Science and Engineering A354 (2003) 315
/325

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Effects of runner system design on the mechanical strength of

Al
7Si
Mg alloy castings
/

X. Dai a, X. Yang a,*, J. Campbell b, J. Wood c

a

Division of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering and the Quality Centre, School of Engineering and Science, University of Paisley,
Paisley PA1 2BE, UK
b
IRC in Materials for High Performance Applications, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK
c
Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow G1 1XJ, UK
Received 15 July 2002; received in revised form 12 December 2002

Abstract
Effects of runner systems on the mechanical strength of Al
/7Si
/Mg alloy castings have been investigated by employing different
cross-sectional shapes of runners. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modelling was used to identify the flow behaviour and the
oxide film distribution in the castings. The X-ray radiography was then used to examine the general distribution of defects in the
castings from different running systems. Four-point bending method was applied. The scatter of bend strength results was quantified
by Weibull statistics. The oxide films and casting defects existing on the fracture surface of the casting specimens were observed by
scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Both of numerical and experimental results showed that the vortex-flow runner system (VR)
could effectively control the ingate velocity and keep its value lower than 0.5 m s1, avoiding the generation of surface turbulence
and the consequential entrainment of oxide films. The results from both the experiment and simulation support the conclusion that
the use of VR can produce castings with fewer oxide film inclusions and more reliable mechanical properties compared with the
castings using conventional runner systems.
# 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Aluminium castings; Runner system design; Casting defects; Bend strength; Computational fluid dynamics; Weibull statistics

1. Introduction
Recent work by Yang et al. [1] has demonstrated the
effect of liquid metal flow and the surface turbulence
using different designs of filling systems on the reliability
of aluminium castings. It has been found to be
important to minimise the surface turbulence during
filling a mould to attain reliable mechanical properties
of the castings. Their results shown that the so-called

* Corresponding author. Tel.: /44-141-848-3579; fax: /44-141848-3663.

E-mail address: yang-mm0@paisley.ac.uk (X. Yang).

vortex-flow runner system (VR) could maintain the

ingate velocity in the range of 0.3
/0.4 m s 1 and the
final castings acquired using such a runner system could
obtain a greater reliability. However, the use of the
traditional rectangular runner system (RR) attains an
ingate velocity well above 0.5 m s 1, the critical velocity
for aluminium castings [2], and the final castings have a
lower reliability. The results are consistent with the
study carried out by Runyoro et al. [3] who indicated
that good quality casting could be achieved by keeping
the liquid meniscus velocity below 0.5 m s 1. It seemed
worth further investigating the relationship between the
liquid aluminium flow behaviour, oxide film defect
distribution, microstructures of casting defects and

0921-5093/03/$ - see front matter # 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/S0921-5093(03)00021-2

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mechanical properties of castings, for different runner

systems.
Improper design of runner system usually results in
higher metal flow velocity and surface turbulence so that
the surface oxide films on the liquid aluminium advancing front is readily folded-over and entrapped into the
bulk liquid metal. The entrapped oxide films are
frequently accompanied by different casting defects
such as shrinkage pores [4], cracks and dross [5] in
solidified castings.
The influence of casting defects on the mechanical
properties of aluminium castings has been studied by a
number of researchers, with a common conclusion that
oxide films play a major role in the control of properties.
Nyahumwa et al. [6] studied the effect of surface
turbulence on the fatigue strength of cast aluminium
alloys and found that fatigue cracks were initiated by
young oxide films, old oxide films or a combination of
both. Caceres and Selling [4] indicated that the decrease
in tensile properties of Al
/Si
/Mg cast aluminium alloys
closely correlates with the area fraction of defects like
porosity and oxide films in the fracture surface of the
casting samples, etc. Green and Campbell [7] pointed
out that the runner system design has an important
influence on the tensile strength of Al
/7Si
/Mg cast
alloys. The tangled networks of oxide films constitute
cracks in the castings that significantly affect the
strength.
In Al
/7Si
/Mg casting alloy, the casting defects
accompanied with the oxide films may exhibit different
morphologies such as tangled or network [7], layer
oxide or globular oxide [5] and cloud or strip clustering
particles [8]. The oxide films may originate from two
main sources, the stage of the melt preparation and
filling process. The former usually produces so-called
old oxide films due to their formation over an extended
time period [2]. These oxide films usually enter a mould
when using a ladle for pouring. However, they can be
avoided to some extent by careful melt preparation. The
latter, the young oxide films, are formed in the liquid
aluminium stream as it flows via the runner system to
enter the mould, being formed and entrained in a short
time period [5]. As indicated by Yang et al. [1], the
young; oxide films can lead to a variety of defects in the
castings.
Thiele [9] has indicated that, the thickness of oxide
film measured on the liquid aluminium is 900 nm at
700 8C where the melt is held for 1 h. After 5 s at
700 8C the measured oxide film thickness on 99.5 Al is
about 24 nm. When the oxidation time was increased by
a factor of ten, the oxide film thickness was doubled.
Thus, the old and young oxide films can be identified
by their thickness.
Old oxide films entering the mould are clearly an
important source of defects in castings. This aspect of
the quality of the original melt is beyond the scope of

this research, but such effects are in any case suppressed

in this work because only differences are being assessed.
The pouring process, and the flow of the melt through
the channels that guides it into the mould cavity, last
only a few seconds. In this brief time new, thin films can
be created. This is the focus of this study.
The objective of this study is to investigate the effect
of runner system designs on the mechanical strength of
Al
/7Si
/Mg alloy castings, focusing on the relationships
among the liquid aluminium flow behaviour, oxide film
defect distribution, microstructure of defects and ultimate strength. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD)
modelling is used to investigate the liquid metal flow
behaviour and oxide film defect distribution for different gating systems. X-ray radiography and scanning
electron microscopy (SEM) are then used to identify the
macro- and micro-structure of casting defects. The
Weibull statistics method is employed to quantify the
effects of three different runner system designs used in
this study on the strength and reliability of castings.

2. Statistical analysis of the mechanical strength of

aluminium castings
Recent researches on cast metals have indicated that
the Weibull distribution can reasonably describe the
fracture properties of the castings for either the UBS or
UTS [10]. The Weibull distribution, as a statistical
description of metal strength properties, was originally
used to analyse the yield strength and fatigue behaviour
of steel alloys [11,12]. For aluminium castings, the twoparameter form of Weibull distribution is widely
adopted and it can be expressed as:
  b 
x
Pi 1exp 
(1)
h
where Pi is the cumulative fraction of specimen failures
(in the bending test); x is the variable being measured; h
is the characteristic stress at which 63.21% of the
specimen have failed; b is the parameter usually referred
to as Weibull modulus.

3. Investigation method
3.1. CFD modelling
In order to simulate the metal flows in different
runner systems, CFD modelling was used. This study
employed the code FLOW-3D. In the filling simulation,
the volume of fluid (VOF) method was used to track the
moving free surface of liquid aluminium in the runner
system. Since the flows in the runner system are highly
turbulent, the RNG k/o turbulent model in the soft-

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Fig. 1. The general three pouring system designs (a) VR; (b) RR; (c) TR.

Fig. 2. Three gating systems (a) VR; (b) RR; (c) TR and (d) offset weir basin.

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318

ware package was employed for the closure of the

Reynold stress arising from the flow [1].
The scalar variable distribution method of the Flow3D code is used to predict the potential distribution of
entrapped oxide films in the castings [13]. The magnitude of the scalar variable can be interpreted as being
proportional to the possibility distribution of the oxide
film defects, highlighting the susceptible areas.

Commercial LM25 aluminium alloy (Al
/7Si
/Mg)

was used to make the castings (unmodified). The
chemical composition (in wt.%) of the alloy is listed in
Table 1. All the castings were poured at a temperature of
735
/740 8C. Six castings were poured, two for each
system. After casting, all the samples were subjected to
heat treatment at 540 8C for 6 h, water quench and
precipitation at 160 8C for 4 h.

3.2. Runner system design

3.4. X-ray radiography

Three different runner system designs, VR, RR and

triangular runner (TR) were chosen as shown in Fig. 1.
The detailed dimensions of these three runner systems
are depicted in Fig. 2. Each runner system includes a
tapered sprue, a runner, a mould cavity and a pouring
basin. It should be noted that the only difference
between the runner systems was the cross-sectional
shapes of the runners. This arrangement allows for a
direct comparison of the liquid metal flow behaviour
and performance of the castings acquired by using
different runner systems.

The macroscopic defect distribution in the castings

was viewed by X-ray radiography.The Fig. 3 shows the
distribution of defects in the casting samples obtained
using TR and RR runner systems. The radiographic
images of the VR plates were featureless and are
consequently not shown.

3.3. Mould material and casting aluminium alloy

preparation
Chemically bonded sand of fineness AFS 60 was used
to make the mould. The binder was a two part mixture
based on resin (urethane/phenolic, 0.6 wt.% PEPSET
5230) and catalyst (isocyanate, 0.6 wt.% PEPSET 5112).

3.5. Four-point bend test

All the castings were machined into the specimens as
shown in Fig. 4; three castings were cut in type a and
three in type b. The four-point bend test was employed
with distance between rollers at 20 and 80 mm.

4. Results
Numerical simulations of filling processes using
code are shown in Figs. 5
/7. It can be seen

FLOW-3D

Table 1
Chemical composition of LM25 alloy used in present investigation
Si

Fe

Cu

Mn

Mg

Ni

Zn

Pb

Sn

Ti

6.10

0.05

0.0036

0.0029

0.32

0.012

0.007

B/0.002

B/0.002

0.11

Fig. 3. The distribution of shrinkage porosity in the castings (a) in the central area of cast plate (TR) (b) the area close to the ingate of cast plate
(RR).

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319

Fig. 4. The cutting methods of casting samples and the produced specimens will subjected to four-point bend test (edge effect exists in the specimens
out of the dash line).

from Fig. 5 that the liquid metal flow in the VR runner

system is smooth. No splash and folding-over of the
melt is observed when the liquid aluminium enters the
mould cavity. In contrast to the VR runner system, the
liquid metal flow in the RR runner systems (Fig. 6)
exhibits an undesirable behaviour with the possibility of
generating surface turbulence. This situation is worse for
the TR runner system (Fig. 7).
An attempt was made to predict the distribution of
entrapped oxide films in the castings with the FLOW-3D
software using the scalar variable distribution method.
Fig. 8 shows the predicted susceptible areas for the
occurrence of oxide film defects for three different
runner systems. In Fig. 8(a) (VR system), there are no
scalar contours of oxide film concentration in the
internal zone of casting. Most of the contours are
distributed around the edge of the casting, indicating
the possibility of defect occurring near the outside
surface of the casting. Fig. 8(b) (RR system) shows

Fig. 5. Numerical simulation of VR runner system using the CFD

code-FLOW-3D.

Fig. 6. Numerical simulation of RR runner system using the CFD

code-FLOW-3D.

Fig. 7. Numerical simulation of TR runner system using the CFD

code-FLOW-3D.

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Fig. 8. The scalar variable distribution plots of three runner systems for (a) VR runner system; (b) RR runner system; (c) TR runner system.

that oxide films exist in the area of the castings close to

the ingate. Fig. 8(c) (TR system) shows that larger scalar
contour regions exist throughout the centre of the
castings.
The frequency plots of the UBS for the two sampling
directions of the castings (Fig. 4) are shown separately in
Fig. 9. Fig. 10 shows the corresponding Weibull plots.
The lower values in the two plots represent the specimens taken from the central areas of the castings.
Specimens taken from the edge area of castings show
higher strength values due to the edge effect (discussed
below).
The average UBS values in descending order, are as
follows:
VR (348 MPa)/TR (344 MPa) /RR (327 MPa), for
vertical sampling method.
TR (375 MPa)/VR (364 MPa) /RR (358 MPa), for
horizontal sampling method.
For vertical sampling, the Weibull moduli (the slope
of the line) of the respective sets of specimens are 12.7,
8.8 and 8.6. In horizontal sampling, the Weibull moduli
of the respective sets of specimen are 18.0, 14.9 and 6.0.
Despite the sampling method, the Weibull moduli
shown in Fig. 10 indicate the same conclusion, i.e.
VR /RR /TR.
The edge effect is excluded from the results presented
in Fig. 11. When the vertical sampling method is used,
the Weibull moduli of the respective sets of specimens
are 20.0, 12.3 and 11.0, while the Weibull moduli of the
respective sets of horizontal specimens are 28.4, 19.9 and
5.1 confirming the order VR /RR /TR.
On the polished metallographic section as shown in
Fig. 12, the SEM micrograph shows that the structure of
a tangled oxide film for the specimen of the RR runner
system. The SEM images of the fracture surface of
selected specimens are shown in Fig. 13. Fig. 13(a)

shows the fracture surface of a specimen (from the TR

runner system) taken from the region that appeared to
be a patch of shrinkage porosities (Fig. 3(a)). Nearly
70% of the fracture surface was covered with shrinkage
porosities. Fig. 14 displays the relevant energy dispersive
X-ray (EDX) spectrum that relates to Fig. 13(c) Fig.
13(d). Fig. 13(c) shows a significantly higher oxygen and
magnesium value from the films compared with that
obtained from clean metallic areas of the fracture
surface as shown in Fig. 13(d), indicating the films
most likely to be spinel Al2O3 / MgO. The two specimens with this type of fracture structure, including
shrinkage porosity, have the lowest UBS values of 230
and 252 MPa compared with the highest UBS value (433
MPa) of another specimen taken from the same casting.

5. Discussion
In comparing the sampling methods, it was found that
the vertical method (Fig. 4a) caused the internal porous
section of the specimens to bear the bend test load
centrally and symmetrically. However, the horizontal
alignment (Fig. 4b) moves the porous regions out of the
central region of the test pieces. Thus, the strengths of
those samples that include the edge samples are on
average higher.
The phenomenon of edge effect, as mentioned earlier, clearly has a major influence on the results. The
outside surfaces of the castings have a higher mechanical
strength than the central parts. This is because a higher
cooling speed on the casting surface results in a finer
microstructure and consequent improved response to
heat treatment. It seems logical, therefore, to exclude
this bias to the results, since only variations due to
defects are sought in this work.
Fig. 13(b) and (c) show typical features of Fig. 13(a),
with the dendrites covered with wrinkled young oxide

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321

Fig. 9. Frequency distribution plots of UBS. (a) RR runner system using vertically sampling method; (b)TR runner system using vertically sampling
method; (c)VR runner system using vertically sampling method; (d) RR runner system using horizontally sampling method; (e)TR runner system
using horizontally sampling method; (f)VR runner system using horizontally sampling method.

films. It is likely that the films were the originators of the

porosity [2]; their folded nature allowing them to open
when subjected to the internal pressure of hydrogen gas,
or the external reduction in pressure due to shrinkage.
As they expand apart, the two sides of the film are
sucked into the dendrite mesh, finally leaving fragments
draped over some dendrites, while most of the film has
disappeared into the depths of the mesh.

Fig. 13(b) and (c) show the secondary dendrite

covered with the wrinkled oxide films that were judged
as young oxide films based on thickness. Fig. 15 shows
the morphology of old oxide film, as arrowed, characterised as creased or craggy.
The results for the TR running system are consistently
poorer when judged by strength, Weibull modulus or by
microstructure. This consistency strongly suggests that

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Fig. 10. Weibull plots of all the casting specimens UBS (a) in vertically sampling method; (b) in horizontally sampling method.

Fig. 11. Weibull plots of all the casting specimens UBS excluding edge effect using two sampling methods.

the castings using the TR runner are more defective. The

poor performance may be the result of the smaller cross
section area of the triangular runner, especially in its
narrow base, leading to higher velocities. This could be
especially important in the brief but vulnerable period
when the runner is still priming, so that there is freedom
for the melt to jump and splash, creating additional area
for the creation of new films.
The outstandingly robust result of the vortex system
seems to be the result of the vortex action in conferring a
strong organisational movement of the liquid as it
negotiates the right angle bend from the exit of the
sprue into the entrance to the runner. The organised
behaviour extends along the length of the runner in this

instance. The benefit of a rotating flow would not be

expected to travel far along lengthy runners, but a
benefit may persist as a result of the considerable
dissipation of energy by the initial rapid rotation [1].
The above results demonstrate the important role
played by oxide films during the filling of the mould.
The results confirm the expectations as indicated in the
introduction, that the young oxide films are closely
related to surface turbulence. Thus, a reduction in
surface turbulence will reduce the possibilities of free
surface break-up and the entrapment of surface oxide
films. It seems that by optimising the runner system
design and improving the flow behaviour during the
filling, the production of young oxide films can be

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323

Fig. 12. SEM micrographs show the distribution of shrinkage porosities and oxide films on the polished fracture surface of specimen from RR
runner casting; (a) show a tangled network of oxide films; (b) is a close view of (a) with porosity between the double oxide film.

Fig. 13. The scanning electron micrographs of the fracture surface of selected specimens for TR runner system; (a) shrinkage porosity; (b) is a closeup view of (a); (c) is a close-up view of (b), the secondary dendrite covered with the wrinkled young oxide films; (d) the typical matrix morphology
taken from the normal fracture surface.

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Fig. 14. EDS spectra obtained the surface shown in (a) Fig. 13c, (b) Fig. 13d.

significantly reduced so that the mechanical strength

and reliability of aluminium alloy castings can be
enhanced.

ingate velocity, and the consequent reduction of casting

defects.

Acknowledgements
6. Conclusions
Effects of using different runner systems (TR, RR and
VR) on the mechanical strength of Al
/7Si
/Mg alloy
castings have been investigated by both CFD modelling
and experimental validations. It is found that the use of
VR can effectively control the chaotic behaviour of
liquid metal flow in the runner, assist in the reduction of

The authors wish to acknowledge the support of the

EPSRC under the contract GR14507/01 and Johnstone
Casting and Engineering Ltd. for providing the X-ray
radiography test. The assistance of David Cloney, John
Turner and Willie Logan are appreciated. Many thanks
are also to Margaret Corrigan for assisting in the
preparation of the SEM images.

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325

Fig. 15. The old oxide films shown on the fracture surface. (a) Inclusion with a crack on the fracture surface of RR specimen; (b) a close-up view of
(a).

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