Casting defects and prevention is one of my major research interests. Have you heard of the man named Dr. John Campbell? His entire research deals inproving casting quality. He put out a book called "Castings" which should help if what I say dosen't help.
First and foremost im...
I remember learning about this in my materials charaterization class. The heat causes the grains to coarsen and align so that the grain boundaries are perpendicular to the axis of the wire. Of course this gives terrible mechanical properties.
The driving force for grain growth is...
I just want to follow up on what I just posted. I was driving on my way home from the reasearch lab I work at UCONN and I had some thoughts about your situation.
Those cracks that you mentioned could very well be from thermal shock, but I would need to know more info about the mold design...
I'm currently studying Al/Si casting defects. You said you found large shrinkage defects near the cracked region,and also large eutectic networks were in the direction of the crack. My question before I can help you is what is the nature shinkage defects? Is it microporosity? If so, current...