Capillarity in metal casting mold filling

In metal casting processes, surface tension of the molten metal typically resists filling of the metal into the mold. The effects are greater for smaller mold cavities, and ultimately, the smallest cavities may not be filled. Surface tension forces can be overcome by applying pressure (head) to the molten metal, thus forcing metal into the cavities. However, a pressure-window will exist, too little pressure resulting in non-filled cavities and too much pressure resulting in penetration of the mold, which is itself porous. Filling-pressure windows are investigated for cylindrical-shaped mold cavities on both a theoretical and experimental basis. The lower bound of the filling pressure window is examined by treating cylindrical mold cavities as cylinders lined with packed spheres representing mold particles. The upper bound is examined by treating the mold as a 3-D array of close-packed spheres. The experimental work concerns industrial-scale vacuum investment casting of superalloy IN718 into molds containing various cylindrical mold cavities at various heights (heads). The experimental results are found to be in good agreement with the numerical modeling predictions for filling of rough (sphere-lined) cylindrical mold cavities