Gas- and Shrinkage Porosities in Al-Si High-Pressure Die-Castings - Virtualization and Experimental Validation

Abstract

The porosity (void caused by technological reasons) in engineering materials always decrease their mechanical characteristics and usually affects the deterioration of the functional mechanical characteristics of the finished products. In the castings the porosity resulting from the specific casting processes phenomena occurs inevitably in the matrix structure. The paper shows this problem in relation to the High-Pressure-Die-Casting (HPDC) technology of Al-Si alloy. The analysis of the experimental results and the results from virtualization of HPDC process allowed to assess the effectiveness of this mixed scenario and improve the quality predictions probability for HPDC, with particular consideration of shrinkage and gas porosities. The problem of the tolerance (admissibility) of porosity occurrence in castings and the castings made of liquid Al-Si alloy to which the gas (hydrogen) was introduced intentionally are signalized.