Prediction of Microporosity in Shrouded Impeller Castings
The purpose of this Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) between the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and Morris Bean and Company was to link computer models of heat and fluid flow with previously developed quality criteria for the prediction of microporosity in a Al-4.5% Cu alloy shrouded impeller casting. The results may be used to analyze the casting process design for the commercial production of 206 o alloy shrouded impeller castings. Test impeller castings were poured in the laboratory for the purpose of obtaining thermal data and porosity distributions. Also, a simulation of the test impeller casting was conducted and the results validated with porosity measurements on the test castings. A comparison of the predicted and measured microporosity distributions indicated an excellent correlation between experiments and prediction. The results of the experimental and modeling studies undertaken in this project indicate that the quality criteria developed for the prediction of microporosity in Al-4.5% Cu alloy castings can accurately predict regions of elevated microporosity even in complex castings such as the shrouded impeller casting. Accordingly, it should be possible to use quality criteria for porosity prediction in conjunction with computer models of heat and fluid flow to optimize the casting process for the production of shrouded impeller castings. Since high levels of microporosity may be expected to result in poor fatigue properties, casting designs that are optimized for low levels of microporosity should exhibit superior fatigue life.
- Research Organization:
- Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC)
- OSTI ID:
- 2137
- Report Number(s):
- ORNL/M-6607; ON: DE00002137
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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