Shrinkages in heavy-sized cast components of nodular cast iron – NDT and fatigue

Material defects like shrinkages, dross, pores and chunky graphite are likely to occur in thick-walled castings and are a challenge for the foundries and their customers. These defects are mostly detected with handheld ultrasonic testing (UT) or X-ray analysis. Within a research project done at the Fraunhofer Institute for Structural Durability and System Reliability LBF, the fatigue of Dross, shrinkages and chunky graphite in thick-walled cast material GGG-40 was estimated based on X-ray and fatigue tests on bending specimens. High fatigue reductions were received for the different material imperfections. Based on these impressions a further research project was executed at the Fraunhofer LBF to get an estimation of the informational value of UT in relation to fatigue of shrinkages in thick-walled castings of the material EN-GJS-400-18U-LT, EN-GJS-450-18 and EN-GJS-700-2. With the help of X-ray analysis and the UT technique Sampling Phased Array (SPA) information about geometry and density were derived for a numerical analysis of shrinkages in thick-walled castings concerning fatigue. The following text summarizes the fatigue results achieved in the two research projects with the help of the X-ray and UT analysis