Modeling and Experimental Validation of Ductile Iron Castings During Solidification

Ductile irons are still important engineering materials due to their high strength and toughness, and relatively low price. In the foundries, ductile irons suffer from shrinkage porosity formation during solidification, which is detrimental to the mechanical properties. In order to minimize porosity formation, large risers are normally used in the design, which reduces porosity level sometimes but leads to a low yield. In order to better understand the shrinkage behavior of ductile iron during solidification, a micro model was developed to simulate the microstructure formation. The density change during solidification and the room temperature mechanical properties can be calculated based on the microstructure. The simulation has been compared with the experimental results and found to be in good agreement.