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2013, Brno, Czech Republic, EU

EFFECT OF INTERNAL DEFECTS ON TENSILE PROPERTIES OF A356 CASTING ALLOYS

Jie CHENGa*, Norbert HORTa, Karl Ulrich KAINERa, Siyoung KWAKb,c

a
Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthach (HZG), Max-Planck-Str. 1, D-21502 Geesthacht, Germany, EU
b
Korea Institute of Industrial Technology (KITECH), 7-47 Songdo-Dong, 406-840 Incheon, South Korea
c
University of Science & Technology (UST),217 Gajungro, Yuseong-Gu, 305-333 Daejeon, South Korea

Abstract
This paper presents both the computational and experimental analysis of internal defects (shrinkage cavity
and blow holes) to evaluate their effect on tensile properties of A356 casting alloys.
For experimental testing, tensile test specimens with internal defects were produced by hanging an Al alloy
wire whose melting point is slightly higher than the feeding temperature of A356 Alloy (700C~710C). An
alumina-silica ceramic fibre-based non-woven fabric (Ceramic Fibre Paper) was fixed on the wire to create
artificial defect after the solidification of molten A356 alloy. Specimens with internal defects of various sizes
were produced, and then tensile and impact tests were performed on the specimens.
In addition to experimental investigation, computational analysis was conducted to determine the
dependence of the alloy tensile properties on the internal defects present. A computational system for finite
element analysis of casting components with internal defects was proposed. In this system, reverse
engineering was first utilized to obtain the CAD models of internal defects. Then numerical calculations are
performed to analyse the shapes of internal defects, reduce them to ellipsoids whose volume-sum
approximately covers all points of the given defects, and then generate the final CAD model of the casting
with internal defects. Finally, computational analysis using finite element method was performed on the
defect-containing casting model.
Results obtained by experiments and computer simulations were in agreement with some marginal
differences. This agreement verified the reliability of proposed computational system for finite element
analysis of casting components with internal defects.
Keywords: Internal casting defect, Ellipsoidal-blob approximation, SSM (Shape Simplification Method),
MVEE (Minimum Volume Enclosing Ellipsoid), FEM (Finite Element Method)

1. INTRODUCTION
Casting is widely used in manufacturing industry due to its advantages like being able to create parts with
complex geometries, net-shape or near net-shape, and relatively more economical compared to other
manufacturing methods. Meanwhile, it also has some disadvantages like limitations on mechanical
properties and environmental problems. Among the disadvantages, the one, i.e. limitations on mechanical
properties are mostly caused by various casting defects or imperfections. Here, the term casting defect is
used for general imperfections in this study [1].
The classification proposed by G. K. Lal [2]was adopted with some modification in this study: casting defects
can be generally classified to two types: 1) Surface defects, such as blow, scar, blister, drop, scab,
penetration and buckle; and 2) Internal defects, such as blow/gas holes, shrinkage/porosity, inclusions,
dross, etc. Their effects on mechanical performance of castings can further be divided into two classes in
terms of micro-size defects and macro-size defects, while micro-size refers to defects that are not visible
without magnification, and macro-size are that large enough to see with the unaided on non-destructive
graphic inspection.
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Most surface defects are readily to be found even by unaided eye, and can be easily corrected by some
industry technology such as shot-blast cleaning or grinding [1]. But, internal casting defects, taking examples
of internal shrinkage cavities and gas porosity, they cannot be detected with unaided eye and even general
product quality control test, like water pressure explosion test, therefore, their effect on the mechanical
performance of castings should be pre-considered when design the cast products and assess the qualities of
castings.
However, the effect of internal defects on the mechanical properties of castings is not fully understood yet,
and there is no well accepted method and standard to predict [3], so designers are uncertain how to deal
with internal defects in their casting designs. Traditional solutions are specifying extensive quality tests,
performing extensive performance testing, and using large factors of safety. All of those solutions do not
necessarily guarantee the performance and they are all somewhat costly [4].
Due to the above reasons, it is necessary and important to study the effects of internal defects on castings.
But it is somehow impossible to conduct a comprehensive study on various internal casting defects. This is
why only internal macro-blowholes and shrinkage cavities were chosen to be studied. Generally, the
terminology "internal defects" was used for both macro-blowholes and macro-shrinkages through this
research. Specimens with internal defects were made by casting and then put to tensile tests. Also, a
computational modelling system was development to model the internal defects for subsequent Finite
Element Analysis (FEA). Comparable results obtained from experiments and computer simulation not only
enriched the understandings of effect of internal defects on castings, and also verified the reliability of
developed modelling method for internal defects, which can be utilized to learn more characteristics of
internal defects, and also has the potential to be extended to other internal macro defects such as metallic
inclusions and internal sweating.

2. EXPERIMENTS
In this research, A356 with a composition indicated in Table 1 was chosen for tensile specimen material.

Table 1. The composition of A356 for specimens

Elements Al Si Mg Cu Fe Ti

Wt. % 92.23 6.98 0.345 0.008 0.13 0.096

2.1 Specimen preparation

Most of previous studies on effect of internal defects used natural defects (defects that resulted from casting
process without extensive manual intervention). K. M. Sigh et.al [3] used four different casting geometries to
produce specimens with tree levels of radio graphically detectable macro-porosity. Similar method was also
applied by M. Avalle, G. Belingardi and M. P. Cavatorta [5]. They used different sprue runners to produce
high and middle level porosities. Another method, extracting specimens from porosity area from casting
blocks, was used by Y. Nadot, J. Mendez and N. Ranganathan [6]. All those methods produce only
specimens with macro-porosity, rather than the isolated macro-shrinkages which are desired in this research.
Macroporosity contains lots of internal macro voids, although they make it possible to get more realistic
results, but it also brings difficulties to understand their effects, because the effects of voids are interactive.
So it is important to find a method of making isolated internal defect which had been a barrier for studies on
this field.
In this research, internal defects (macro-shrinkage cavities or blowholes) was produced by hanging an Al
alloy wire whose melting point is slightly higher than the pouring temperature of A356 (700C~710C). On
the Al alloy wire, there was a macro-shrinkage-like grain fixed on. The grains are made of alumina-silica
ceramic fibre-based non-woven fabric (Ceramic Fibre Paper). Their shapes are irregular with typical size
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about 2~7 mm. Because ceramic fibre paper has characteristics of 1) Light-weight, flexible, good handing
strength and good uniformity; 2) Resists temperature as high as 2300 F, fire resistant; 3) Good for die-cut
and automatic stamping, so after the solidification of molten A356, the grain would exist inside the castings,
and their effects on mechanical properties are assumed to be same with ones of shrinkages.
Casted A356 blocks were subsequently T6 heat treated. A356 blocks were heated to 520 C for 8 hours, and
cooled rapidly by water quenching. Then, the blocks were kept at room temperature for 12 hours (Natural
Aging), and subsequently heated to 160 C for 6 hours and followed with furnace cooling (Artificial Aging).
After T6 heat treated, A356-T6 blocks were scanned with RaySacn X-ray inspection system to detect the
position of the internal defects, which would be used to guide the machining process for extracting tensile
specimens from cast A356-T6 blocks. As soon as the tensile test specimens were extracted, RaySan X-ray
inspection system was again used to acquire the shape, size and position information of internal defects for
the subsequent computer modelling process, the CT images of final tensile test specimens are shown in
Figure 1.

Fig. 1 Dimension and CT images of tensile test specimens

2.2 Experimental results

The tensile tests were performed with MTS Landmark Servohydraulic System at room temperature in a
displacement control mode with the speed of 2 mm per minute. As a result, applied force and elongation
data were obtained as shown in Figure 2. Here, the applied force refers to the gripping forces that applied on
wedge grip, and elongation was the one measured with the 50 mm axial extensometer. By fitting curves,
elastic moduli (E) were obtained for metal mould casted A356-T6 in this study as shown in Figure 3. The
yield strengths (0.2% offset) and ultimate strengths of five specimens were calculated and listed in Table 2.

Fig. 2 Tensile test results Fig. 3 Elastic moduli drawn from tensile tests
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Table 2 Comparison of yield, ultimate strengths and max elongations of tensile specimens
Ultimate Max.
Yield Strength Difference Difference Difference
Specimen Strength Elongation
(MPa) (%) (%) (%)
(MPa) (mm)
G1TTS#01 143.78 Reference 234.15 Reference 3.00 Reference
G1TTS#02 139.80 -2.78 224.50 -4.12 2.95 -1.67
G1TTS#03 156.41 8.78 187.51 -19.92 0.66 -78.00
G1TTS#04 137.78 -4.17 157.17 -32.88 0.42 -86.00
G1TTS#05 135.44 15.06 146.77 -37.32 0.34 -88.67

3. COMPUTATIONAL ANALYSIS

3.1 Computational system

Lots of researches have been conducted to study the performance-based guidelines for design of cast
components where the amount or location of defects is considered. The previous works on this field are
generally divided into two parts: on Micro, and on Macro defects. Since the studies regarding on micro
defects are much more systemic than ones of macro defects, the problem falls to how to count macro
defects into the consideration of castings performance. In previous studies, the author and S. Y. Kwak
summarized two exacting methods for counting the effects of internal defects in casting designs: 1) Direct
Shape Method (DSM), 2) Material Property Reduction Method (MPRM) and they proposed the third method,
named 3) Shape Simplification Method (SSM) [7]. Lately, they further improved the SSM to enable it for
modelling multi-defects and generating simplified defect model with more flexible shape [8].
In summary, the developed computational system executes the following the functions:
(1) Reverse engineering: voxel information (point cloud) of casting with internal shrinkage cavities was
acquired with one of reverse engineering tools, i.e. industrial Computed Tomography X-ray (CT) in this
study, and subsequently converted to STL format model which includes the information of both the outer
profile of casting and the internal shrinkage cavities;
(2) Point clustering: voxel information obtained in step (1) are decomposed to a couple of point groups;
(3) Ellipsoidal approximation: Khachiyan method [9] was utilized to find the minimum volume enclosing
ellipsoids that cover the given group points;
(4) Boolean operation: obtained ellipsoids are merged together and then Boolean cut with CAD model of
cast part to get the final cast part model with shape-simplified internal defects.
To simplify the procedure of the modelling process for castings with internal defects, a modelling toolkit
which couples above four functions, was developed using Python code and implemented into ABAQUS as a
customized plug-in toolkit as shown in Figure 4. With the customized ABAQUS plug-in toolkit, the final
casting model which includes internal defects can be readily obtained by engineers to be used for
subsequent finite element analysis [8].

3.2 Simulation results

According to experimental conditions, boundary and load conditions were applied to tensile specimens, and
then the first order continuum three dimensional 4-node linear tetrahedron elements (Abaqus C3D4
Elements) were generated on the models. All models of tensile specimens were meshed with same element
size distribution (size of 2 mm on gripping region, 1mm on gage region and 0.25 mm on defect surface).
For tensile test simulation, static analysis was performed using Abaqus Standard. Material properties were
calculated based on experimental results of reference specimen, G1TTS#01, and assigned to each model.
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One end of model was fixed and displacement of 5 mm was applied on the other end. As a result, for
G1TTS#01 model, von Mises stress on the cross section of gage region increased uniformly, while stress
concentrations occurs around the internal defects for those defected specimens.
Figure 5 is a plot of the stress distribution in the tensile specimen at the onset of the maximum Von Mises
stress. The Von Mises stress was found to increase to the ultimate strength of A356-T6 (G1TTS#01:
234.15MPa) and finally propagate onto the outer surface of the cross section in the gage region. In this
study, the assumption that a material stressed up to the ultimate tensile stress would fracture was made to
analyze the simulation results. Thus, damages were expected to initiate from the surface of internal defects,
and then propagate to nearby materials. Once damages reached the outer surface of the cross section in the
gage region, specimens would then fracture. Based on this assumption, it was obtained from the simulation
results that maximum Von Mises stress in the defected specimen (e.g., G1TTS#04) increased much more
rapidly than the sound specimen (e.g., G1TTS#01), due to the effect of the stress concentration. In turn, the
elongations of two specimens at onset of fracture were 2, 70 and 0.42 mm, respectively.

G1TTS#04

Fig. 4 Abaqus toolkit for internal defects modelling Fig. 5 Contour of von Mises stress distribution

4. COMPARISON OF RESELTS
Computational and experimental results of load-carrying capacity and maximum elongations of gage length
of each tensile specimen (except G1TTS#01) are plotted in Figure 6. Since the material property data for
computational analysis were taken from experimental results of G1TTS#01, so it is reasonable that
computational and experimental results of G1TTS#01 match well to each other, and thus is not plotted. For
results of G1TTS#02~#05, although computational results differed from experimental results in various
degrees, most computational results were compared with experimental ones with errors less 5%; one
exceptional case was 9.96% (Load carrying capacity of G1TTS#05). The big error may caused by the
inaccurate modelling of internal defects, or the experimental error. More accurate models of internal defects
should be made to investigate the relationship between modelling and computational results in further study.
However, considering the complex characteristics of internal casting defects, the obtained computational
results are acceptable.

5. CONCLUSIONS
Tensile testing results showed that the internal defects created had various effects on tensile properties.
Elongation was most drastically affected (up to 88.67% reduction), followed by tensile load bearing capacity
and ultimate tensile strength (up to 37.32% reduction) and yield strength (up to 15.06% reduction). There
was almost no measureable effect on elastic modulus.
In addition, an easy-to-use computational system was proposed to simulate the tensile tests. Results
obtained by experiments and computer simulations were in agreement with some marginal differences. This
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agreement verified the reliability of proposed computational system for finite element analysis of casting
components with internal defects.

Fig. 6 Comparison of applied force versus Elongation histories

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This research was supported by Korea University of Science & Technology (UST) and Korea Institute
of Industrial Technology (KITECH). The acknowledgment is given to them hereby.

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