Mechanism of

Solidification
ME1130 Foundry Engineering

Melting and Pouring

The quality of casting depends on the method of melting.
The melting technique should provide molten metal at
required temperature, but should also provide the
material of good quality and in the required quantity.

Pouring vessels

 Molten metal is prevented from oxidation by covering the molten

metal with fluxes or by carrying out melting and pouring in vacuum
Ladles which pour the molten metal from beneath the surface are
used
The two main consideration during pouring are the temperature and
pouring rate
Fluidity of molten metal is more at higher temperature but it results
into more amount of dissolved gases and high temperature also
damage the mould walls and results into poor surface quality of the
casting
To control the amount of dissolved gases low, the temperature
should not be in superheated range
In ferrous metals, the dissolved hydrogen and nitrogen are removed
by passing CO. In non-ferrous metals, Cl, He, or Ar gases are used.
Therefore, fluidity and gas solubility are two conflicting
requirements. The optimum pouring temp. is therefore decided on
the basis of fluidity requirements.The temp. should be able to fill
the whole cavity at the same time it should enter inside the voids
between the sand particles.

Pouring Time

Cooling rate depends on casting material and

configuration. It also depends on volume and surface
area of the casting also.
The pouring rate should be such that solidification does
not start and the cavity is completely filled without
eroding mould surface and undue turbulence.
On the basis of experience following empirical relations
are developed for pouring time

K: Fluidity factor
W: Weight In kg
t : section thickness in
mm
Tp: Pouring time in sec

Mechanism of Solidification
Pure metals solidifies at a constant temp. equal
to its freezing point, which same as its melting
point.
The change form liquid to solid does not occur
all at once. The process of solidification starts
with nucleation, the formation of stable solid
particles within the liquid metal. Nuclei of solid
phase, generally a few hundred atom in size,
start appearing at a temperature below the
freezing temperature. The temp. around this
goes down and is called supercooling or
undercooling. In pure metals supercooling is
around 20% of the freezing temp.
A nuclease, more than a certain critical size

Cooling and Solidification

Pure metal

Alloy

 By adding, certain foreign materials (nucleating agents)

the undercooling temp. is reduced which causes
enhanced nucleation.
In case of pure metals fine equi-axed grains are formed
near the wall of the mold and columnar grain growth
takes place upto the centre of the ingot.
In typical solid-solution alloy, the columnar grains do not
extend upto the center of casting but are interrupted by
an inner zone of equiaxed graines.
by adding typical nucleating agents like sodium,
magnesium or bismuth the inner zone of equiaxed
grained can be extended in whole casting.

Crystal structure in Castings

a) Equi axed
Grains near wall,
columnar grain
growth takes
place upto the
centre of the
ingot. Pure metal

b) Equi axed Grains

near wall, columnar
grain growth takes
place not upto the
centre of the ingot.
Solid solution

C) By adding
nucleating
agents like
sodium,
magnesium or
bismuth the
inner zone of
equiaxed
grained can be
extended in

Dendrite formation

In alloys, such as Fe-C, freezing and solidificaion occurs

overa wide range of temp. There is no fine line of
demarcation exists between the solid and liquid metal.
Here, start of freezing implies that grain formation
while progressing towards the center does not solidify
the metal completely but leaves behind the islands of
liquid metals in between grains which freeze later and
there is multidirectional tree like growth.

Solidification Time
Once the material cools down to freezing
temperature, the solidification process for
the pure metals does not require a
decrease in temperature and a plateau is
obtained in the cooling curves, called
thermal arrest. The solidification time is
total time required for the liquid metal to
solidify.
Solidification time has been found to be
directly proportional to volume and
inversely proportional to surface area.

Solidification time

Mold Constant in
Chvorinov's Rule
Mold constant Cm depends on:
Mold material
Thermal properties of casting metal
Pouring temperature relative to melting point

Value of Cm for a given casting operation can

be based on experimental data from
previous operations carried out using same
mold material, metal, and pouring
temperature, even though the shape of the
part may be quite different

What Chvorinov's Rule Tells

Us
Casting with a higher volumetosurface area ratio
cools and solidifies more slowly than one with a lower
ratio
To feed molten metal to the main cavity,
TTS for riser must be greater than TTS for main casting

Since mold constants of riser and casting will be equal,

design the riser to have a larger volumetoarea ratio
so that the main casting solidifies first
This minimizes the effects of shrinkage

Canine formula
Canines equation

+c