Department of Materials and Metallurgical Engineering

Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, Dhaka

MME346 Foundry Engineering Sessional

1.50 Credits 100 Marks 3.00 Hours/Week

Experiment 2
Effect of Casting Shape and Size on Solidification Time

AIM OF EXPERIMENT
1. To understand the variables affecting solidification
2. To understand the importance and limitations of Chvorinov’s Rule for predicting the
solidification time of a casting

STUDENT EXPECTATIONS / LEARNING OBJECTIVE

1. Identify the resistances to heat transfer during solidification of casting
2. Understand the functions of each variables that affect solidification of casting
3. Determination of solidification time of a casting
4. Understand the effect of size and shape of casting on solidification time
5. Obtain a relation for Chvorinov’s Rule for predicting the solidification time of a casting
6. Understand the importance and limitations of Chvorinov’s Rule

OBJECT TO CAST
To understand the nature of the effect of casting shape and size on solidification time, five different
shaped objects of different volumes will be cast. The details of these objects are shown in Table E1-1.

Table E1-1: Dimensions of castings

Volume of Dimension of Casting (D=Diameter, H=Height, L=Length, W=Width, T=Thickness)

Casting
Sphere Cylinder Cube Square Plate Elongated Plate
D H = 1.5 D L LxWxT LxWxT
cm3 cm cm cm cm cm
300 8.30 9.50 x 6.34 6.70 12.25 x 12.25 x 2.00 18.75 x 8.0 x 2.00
500 9.85 11.25 x 7.5 7.94 12.5 x 12.5 x 3.20 19.53 x 8.0 x 3.20
800 11.52 13.20 x 8.8 9.28 14.0 x 14.0 x 4.10 19.50 x 10.0 x 4.10
1000 12.40 14.2 x 9.47 10.0 14.9 x 14.9 x 4.50 22.22 x 10.0 x 4.50

MATERIAL
Commercially pure copper will be used for this experiment.
EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE
1. Prepare moulds using bottom/side pouring CO2 process or greensand moulding process days in
advance.
2. Insert one K-type thermocouple tip at the centre of the mould cavity to record the temperature of
the solidifying casting.
3. Melt the required amount of materials using crucible/induction furnace and pour the liquid into
the mould at about 1200 °C.
4. Use a Temperature vs Time chart to record the temperature of the solidifying casting at an
interval of 10 second until the temperature of the casting is decreased to 800 C.
5. Draw the cooling curve using any spreadsheet programme (Microsoft Excel, for example) or in a
piece of graph paper using the data. Determine the start and end time of solidification and
calculate the solidification time of the casting.
6. Complete the data sheet and prepare your report.

DISCUSS THE FOLLOWING IN YOUR REPORT

1. Plot (using a semi log graph paper) and discuss the effect of casting volume on the solidification
time of copper castings having the same shape. Obtain an expression for solidification time –
volume of casting relation from the curve.
2. Plot (using a semi log graph paper) and discuss the effect of surface area of the casting on the
solidification time of copper castings having (a) the same volume, and (b) the same shape. Obtain
an expression for solidification time – surface area of casting relation from the curve.
3. Plot (using a semi log graph paper) and discuss the effect of volume/surface area ratio on the
solidification time of copper castings having (a) the same volume, and (b) the same shape.
Discuss the effect of size and shape on these plots.
4. Obtain a combined expression for the Chvorinov’s Rule from your experimental data and
determine the constants.

INDIVIDUAL ASSESSMENT
We recognise that students have different learning styles and needs. The following will help students
to assess their progress

Learning Objective Learning Outcome Yes/No

Heat transfer
Resistance to heat transfer
Modulus of casting
Solidification time
Chvorinov’s rule
Shape of casting
Limitations of Chvorinov’s rule
Methods of heat transfer from liquid metal inside the casting
Different resistances to overcome during solidification of
molten metal
Calculation of modulus of casting
Understand the variables that affects solidification time of
casting
Derive a relation for Chvorinov’s rule for predicting the
solidification time of a casting
Understand the effect casting shape on Chvorinov’s rule
Understand the limitations of Chvorinov’s rule while
determining solidification time of casting

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 Experiment 2: Effect of Casting Shape and Size on Solidification Time

Data Sheet

Date of Experiment ________________________

Student Group ________________

Student Numbers __________________________________________________________

Solidification Time (Seconds)

Volume of
Casting (cm3)
Sphere Cylinder Cube Square Plate Elongated Plate

200

500

800

1000

Signature of Instructor with Date

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Theoretical Background

1. Introduction
The amount of heat that must be removed from a casting to cause it to solidify is directly proportional to the
amount of superheat and the amount of metal in the casting, or the casting volume. Conversely, the ability to
remove heat from a casting is directly related to the amount of exposed surface area through which the heat can
be extracted and the insulating value of the mould. These observations are reflected in Chvorinov's Rule, which
states that tf, the total solidification time, can be computed by:
𝑛
𝑉
𝑡𝑓 = 𝐶
𝐴
where V is the volume of the casting; A is the surface area; and C is the mould constant, and n is a constant,
which varies from 1.5 to 2.0 (2 in Chvorinov’s work). The total solidification time is the time from pouring to
the completion of solidification and mould constant C depends on the characteristics of the metal being cast (its
density, heat capacity, and heat of fusion), the mould material (its density, thermal conductivity, and heat
capacity), the mould thickness, and the amount of superheat.
Chvorinov’s rule is one of the most useful guide to the students of foundry engineering. It provides a powerful
general method of tackling the feeding of castings to ensure their soundness and producing castings with
improved structure and properties. Since a feeder and a casting are both within the same mould and fill with the
same metal under the same conditions, Chvorinov's rule can be used to ensure that the casting will solidify
before the feeder by designing a feeder with a higher modulus than the casting. Different cooling rates and
solidification times can produce substantial variation in the resulting structure and properties. For instance, die
casting, which uses metal moulds, has faster cooling and produces higher-strength castings than sand casting,
which uses a more insulating mould material.

2. Derivation of Chvorinov’s Rule

Schwartz (1931) has analysed the heat transfer within a theoretically infinite mould filled with liquid metal and
suggested that the distance travelled by the solidification front, x, is given by
𝑥 = 𝜂 𝑡
-1/2
where 𝜂 is a constant (cm s ) and t is the solidification time (s). Schwartz also suggested that, for one
dimensional heat flow, the temperature at the mould/metal interface, T i, is assumed to be constant and can be
calculated as
𝑇𝑚
𝑇𝑖 =
𝑏𝑚 𝜂
1+ erf
𝑏𝑠 2 𝛼𝑠
where Tm is the melting temperature (°C) (assuming no solidification interval), b m and bs are the heat diffusivity
of mould and solidifying metal (cal cm-2 s-1 C-1), and s is thermal diffusivity of solidifying metal (cm2 s-1). The
diffusivity is often measured as the product of KC, where K is thermal conductivity (cal cm-1 s-1 C-1).and C is
the specific heat (cal g-1 C-1).
Chvorinov (1940) stated that the heat diffusivity ratio is small for sand moulds, and hence T i is lower than Tm by
only about 2%. Therefore, the amount of heat lost from the solidified layer would be negligible, and the surface
temperature of metal in sand castings will not depend on the actual shape of the casting. Chvorinov proceeded to
show that the solidification time of castings poured with no superheat can be expressed as
2
𝜋 𝜌𝑙 𝐿 𝑉 2
𝑡 =
4𝑏𝑚 𝑇𝑚 − 𝑇0 𝐴
where 𝜌𝑙 is the density of liquid (g cm-3), T0 is the ambient mould temperature (°C), V is the casting volume
(cm3), and A is the surface area through which heat is lost by the casting (cm 2). Replacing the coefficient of
(V/A)2 with a constant C, the Chvorinov’s Rule takes the familiar form
2
𝑉
𝑡 = 𝐶
𝐴

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To prove the validity of his criterion, Chvorinov plotted the solidification times of castings of different shapes
and sizes. This is shown in Fig. 1, which indicates an almost perfect fit of his and some other experimental data.

Figure 1: The effect of volume/surface area ratio of a variety of casting geometries on solidification time of steel castings.

From the equation, it is clear that, a high melting point favours rapid solidification, so that a casting in steel
should solidify faster than a similar casting in grey iron. Similarly, low heat of fusion favours rapid freezing, so
that despite similar freezing points, magnesium castings should freeze faster than similar castings in aluminium.

3. Effect of shape
Halbart (1945) has stated that the Chvorinov’s Rule should be true only for infinite plates. If the shape is varied,
the constant C should accordingly vary between two extremes (1) and (2) independent of casting size; (1) applies
for spheres while (2) applies for infinite plates. Berry et al (1959) have stated that the solidification time for
castings with varying size but a constant shape could be related to the modulus but the constant C should be
corrected on changing from one shape to the other. Chvorinov (1963) later has admitted that shape has a definite
effect on the solidification time and the actual solidification time and those predicted by Chvorinov’s Rule show
discrepancies between different shapes. Chvorinov’s Rule is, in fact an application of one-dimensional analytical
model into a three-dimensional actual casting and it is subject to certain limitations which arise from the
following assumptions:
(i) the medium is isotropic and homogeneous and semi-infinite conditions apply,
(ii) the casting is poured with no superheat,
(iii) the metal is either a pure metal or a eutectic alloy for which the liquidus and solidus temperatures are the
same,
(iv) the temperature of the mould/metal interface is constant and independent of time and location along the
interface, and
(v) the physical constants of the metal and mould are not affected by temperature.

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Chvorinov (1940) has suggested that the rule can be used for a range of casting shapes and sizes provided that
external curvature and end effects are neglected. However, excellent fit of data onto the straight line in Fig. 1 is
subject to the following considerations:
(i) different zones of the same casting are considered as separate test points,
(ii) it included date from other researchers,
(iii) solidification times may not be reliable because of heavily protected thermocouples,
(iv) feeders are used, and
(v) the specific heat and latent heat of solidification of steel are low.
The theoretical value of 2 for m in the Chvorinov’s Rule follows from the heat model in which the heat flow is
controlled by conduction through the mould itself, which is normal for sand moulds. However, for small sand
castings or permanent mould castings, the power of the modulus is predicted to be 1 because it is assumed that
heat flow is controlled by transfer across the interface, i.e. air-gap controlled (Campbell, 1991). In practice all
castings are to some extent controlled by both conduction and air gap. Campbell (1994) has found that the heat
transfer in thin section fluidity castings is controlled by a mixture of interface and mould limitations. For this
reason Campbell predicts the power of the modulus to be somewhere between 1 and 2, but probably nearer 2.
Fleming (1974) has derived another equation for the solidification times of castings, which can be expressed as
𝑉 𝑇𝑚 − 𝑇0 2 𝑛𝐾𝑚 𝑡𝑓
= 𝐾𝑚 𝜌𝑚 𝐶𝑚 𝑡𝑓 +
𝐴 𝜌𝑠 𝐿 𝜋 2𝑟
where r is the casting radius (cm), and n, the shape factor constant, is 0 for a plate, 1 for a cylinder, and 2 for a
sphere. Fleming states that Chvorinov’s Rule becomes increasingly valid with decreasing thermal diffusivity of
the mould. It is also more valid for cylinders than for spheres. For a given modulus, a sphere freezes more
rapidly than a cylinder and a cylinder more rapidly than a plate.

References
J Berry, V Kondic and G Martin, “Solidification times of simple shaped castings in sand moulds,” AFS Transactions, 1959,
449-476.
J Campbell, Castings, Butterworth-Heninemann, 1991.
J Campbell, “Review of fluidity concepts in castings,” Cast Metals, 1994, 227-237.
N Chvorinov, “Theory of casting solidification,” Giesserei, 1940, 27, 177-186, 201-208, 222-225.
N Chvorinov, Solving feeders and sinkheads, International Foundry Congress, Prague, 1963.
G Hallbart, Elements of a mathematical theory of founding, H Vaillant Carmanne, Leige, 1945.
C Schwarz, “Mathematical treatment of cooling and solidification of molten metals,” Archiv fur das Eisenhuttenwesen, 1931,
139-148, 177-191.

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