Mechanism of Filling and Feeding of Thin-Walled Structures during Gravity Casting

The filling and feeding of thin-walled structures in metal castings pose significant difficulties in manufacturing aerospace structural materials. Samples containing 2 mm and 5 mm thin-walled structures were designed to study the kinetics of filling. The microstructural evolution of the solidification of thin-walled structures was studied with synchrotron X-radiation imaging. The formation of dendritic networks and the isotherm profiles of samples of different thickness were examined. The experimental results showed solidification microstructures of 2 mm and 5 mm thin-walled parts containing elongated equiaxed grains and normal equiaxed grains, respectively. The filling and feeding abilities of thin-walled parts were found to depend more on the wall thickness than on the pouring temperature.