Journal of Materials Processing Technology 212 (2012) 13991405

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Journal of Materials Processing Technology
j our nal homepage: www. el sevi er . com/ l ocat e/ j mat pr ot ec
Development of a device for dynamical measurement of the load on casting and
the contraction of the casting in a sand mold during cooling
Yuichi Motoyama
a,
, Hiroki Takahashi
a
, Yuki Inoue
a
, Keita Shinji
a
, Makoto Yoshida
b
a
Department of Modern Mechanical Engineering, Graduate School of Waseda University, 3-4-1 Shinjyuku-ku Okubo, Tokyo 169-8555, Japan
b
Kagami Memorial Laboratory for Materials Science and Technology, Waseda University, 2-8-26, Nishi-Waseda, Shinjyuku-ku, Tokyo 169-0051, Japan
a r t i c l e i n f o
Article history:
Received 27 August 2011
Received in revised form3 February 2012
Accepted 6 February 2012
Available online 13 February 2012
Keywords:
Sand mold
Sand casting
Residual stress
Distortion
CAE
Aluminumalloy
a b s t r a c t
To predict and control the residual stress present in sand castings manufactured via CAE (Computer Aided
Engineering), the mechanical interaction between the casting and the sand mold during cooling must be
determined experimentally. A device was developed in this study to determine the load on the casting
caused by the resistance of the mold and the contraction of the casting during cooling. Our device consists
of two modules that work simultaneously: a module containing a load cell, for measuring the load on
the casting during cooling and a module containing an LVDT (Linear Variable Differential Transformer)
for measuring the contraction of the casting during cooling. In performance verication testing, the
device enabled the simultaneous measurement of the load on the sand casting and the contraction of the
casting. This measurement was performed dynamically during the cooling process. Additionally, for the
case where the contraction of the casting was hindered by the sand mold, the permanent deformation
of the casting after shake out (which leads to residual stress in the casting) was successfully measured
using our device.
2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
The presence of residual stress and distortion is a signicant
problem when producing sand castings such as cylinder heads,
large presses, and machine tool beds made from cast iron. There-
fore, various investigations into this issue have been reported. Jacot
et al. (2000) developed mathematical model based on the nite-
element code to predict the microstructure and residual stress in
cast iron castings, and the results were veried against residual
stress measurement. Residual stress in the stress lattice, which has
been used for evaluating the residual stress in the casting, was both
measured and simulated by Gustafsson et al. (2009). Lee and Lee
(2005) simulated the distortion of the marine propeller casting in
the sand casting and compared the results to the measurements.
Ahmed and Chandra (1997) studied numerically that howmechan-
ical properties of the sand mold affected the distribution of the
residual stress in the copper alloy casting. Daniel et al. (2001) and
ChangandDantzig(2004) developedthemodelingof thesandmold
for predicting the residual stress of the sand casting.
According to T.S.32 (1952), three causes of residual stress and
distortion in sand castings have been identied as follows.

Corresponding author. Tel.: +81 3 5286 3329; fax: +81 3 5286 3329.
E-mail address: xyzcity@fuji.waseda.jp (Y. Motoyama).
1) Temperature difference within a casting during cooling.
If a temperature difference occurs within a casting during
cooling, it causes thermal stress. If thermal stress induces a per-
manent strain (i.e., a plastic strain, creep strain), the permanent
strain leads to residual stress and distortion of the castings after
shake out.
2) Sand mold restraint on the contraction of the casting during
cooling.
During cooling, if the sand mold surrounding the casting
restrains the contraction of the castings, then this restraint
causes stress in the casting. If this stress causes a permanent
strain within the casting, then the permanent strain causes a
residual stress and a distortion of the casting.
3) Phase transformations in the solid state during cooling.
During cooling, if a transformation accompanied by a volume
change occurs in different areas of the casting and/or at differ-
ent times during the cooling process, then a residual stress is
created.
The focus of this study will be put on the effect of the restraint
due to the sand mold on the contraction behavior of the casting
during cooling.
Several investigations havereportedontheeffect of therestraint
due to the sand mold on the contraction of the casting.
Nyichomba and Campbell (1998), Nyichomba et al. (1998) and
Mkumbo et al. (2002) cast bar castings with various ange size at
0924-0136/$ see front matter 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.jmatprotec.2012.02.007
1400 Y. Motoyama et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 212 (2012) 13991405
Fig. 1. Schematic illustration of the device for measuring the load on casting and the contraction of the casting.
each end using green sand, furan sand and CO
2
sand molds and
measured the contraction of the casting both with and without
anges after shake out. However, the contraction was not mea-
sured dynamically in these works, and the load on the casting was
not measured during cooling.
Parkins andCowan(1953) simultaneously cast bar castings with
and without ange at each end. To dynamically measure the con-
traction of the castings, the steel rods were cast into each end of the
bar castings and the displacements of the steel rods were measured
with dial gauges after pouring. However Parkins measured only the
contractions of the castings, the load on the castings during cooling
was not measured.
In the studies by Nyichomba and Campbell (1998), Nyichomba
et al. (1998) and Parkins and Cowan (1953) the contraction and
the permanent deformation of the casting were measured for the
purpose of the investigating the restraint due to the sand mold.
However, the load on the casting was not measured during cooling
in these studies. The permanent deformation of the casting occurs
as a result of the restraining force fromthe sand mold during cool-
ing. Therefore, to determine the mechanical interaction between
the casting and the sand mold during cooling, both the contrac-
tion of the casting and the load on the casting must be measured
simultaneously. However, to our knowledge, this is the rst study
in which both the load on the casting and the contraction of the
casting are measured dynamically during cooling. These data are
essential to estimate the effect of the sand mold on the residual
stress and the distortion of the casting and to examine the validity
of the result of the residual stress analysis in sand the castings with
manufactured via CAE (Computer Aided Engineering).
Therefore, in this work, we developed a device capable of
dynamically measuring both the load on the castings and the
contraction of the castings during cooling. Furthermore, we deter-
minedwhether it is possible toachieve a permanent deformationof
the casting after shake out. In this work, after shake out is dened
as when the temperature of the casting reaches 45

C after the load

on the casting has been eliminated by removing the sand around
the casting.
2. Experimental device
2.1. Outline of the device
The developed device is schematically illustrated in Fig. 1. The
device consists of a metal molding box, a rigid plate, tie bars, a
load cell whose full scale is 20kN full with a 20N precision (Tokyo
Sokki Kenkyujo Co., Ltd.), the cast part (C) (connected with shaft
(A) via welding), the shaft (A) (which transmits the load to the load
cell), the shaft (B) (which is fastened to the rigid plate), and a linear
variable differential transformer (LVDT) whose measuring range
is 10mm with 0.02mm precision (Shinko Denshi Co., Ltd.). The
ribs (D) are welded to the metal molding box to reduce the elastic
deformation of the metal molding box when the load is applied.
The nuts that are located between the shaft (A) and the load cell,
between the shaft (B) and the load cell, and between the shaft (B)
and the rigid plate were fastened at 35Nmof torque with a torque
wrench to ensure that they remained securely locked during the
experiment. The nuts did not loosen during the experiments.
2.2. Module for measuring the load on the casting during cooling
As shown in Fig. 2, part (C) is cast into one end of the cast-
ing when the casting, with or without a ange, is cast in the sand
mold. Whenthe sandmoldbetweenthe ange andthe metal mold-
ing box constrains the contraction of the casting during cooling,
there is a load on the casting. As previously mentioned, the load
cell is connected with the shaft (B), which is fastened to the rigid
plate. Thus, the load is transmitted to the load cell by the shaft (A).
Fig. 2. Appearance and placement of the load measuring module.
Y. Motoyama et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 212 (2012) 13991405 1401
Fig. 3. Appearance and placement of the contraction-measuring module (the case of the angeless casting).
Consequently, the load on the castings is measured dynamically
fromstarting when the castings are poured.
The shaft (A) was cooled with waste water to prevent the heat
fromconducting to the load cell, and the temperature of the shaft
(A) was below50

C during the experiments.

2.3. Module for measuring the contraction of the casting during
cooling
To measure the contraction of the castings, an LVDT was placed
on the metal molding box on the opposite side of the load measur-
ing unit (Figs. 1 and 3). The core of the LVDT was connected to a
quartz glass rod with a smaller thermal expansion coefcient than
that of the steel rod used by Parkins and Cowan (1953). As shown
in Fig. 3, the quartz glass rod was cast-in after pouring. The tip of
the quartz glass rod had a spherical shape and was coated using
an inorganic adhesive to prevent it fromdetaching after being cast
in. With this module, it was possible to dynamically measure the
contraction of the casting from starting when the castings were
poured.
During the experiment, a ceramic guard pipe was used to avoid
friction between the sand and the quartz glass rod (Fig. 3). The
quartz glass rodwas able tomove withinceramic guardpipe during
the experiment.
2.4. Critical issues
2.4.1. Avoiding the restraint due to the sand between the sprue
and the metal molding box
The sprue was located at a distance of 30mmdistance fromthe
end of the pattern (which was made of polystyrene) used in full
moldcastinginthis study(Figs. 1and4). Therewas a possibilitythat
thesandbetweenthesprueandthemetal moldingboxmay restrain
the contraction of the casting during cooling (Fig. 1E). Therefore, to
removethis restraint betweenthesprueandthemetal moldingbox,
a exible blanket insulator with a thickness of 2mmwas attached
inside the sprue (Fig. 1).
2.4.2. Avoiding a load caused by thermal expansion of the cast
part after pouring
As shown in Fig. 5(a), when the cast part is in direct contact
with the metal molding box during the experiment, the thermal
expansion of the cast part is restricted by the metal molding box
after pouring. It was observed that the restriction of the thermal
expansion caused a dragging of the shaft (A) after pouring, and the
load on the castings was therefore not measured exactly.
To remedy this problem, a exible paper insulator with a thick-
ness of 5mm was placed between the cast part and the metal
molding box (Fig. 5(b)) so that the cast part was able to expand
freely after pouring. After taking this step, there was no load due to
a restriction of the thermal expansion.
Fig. 4. Schematic illustrations of the patterns for the full mold casting. (a) With
ange pattern and (b) without ange pattern.
1402 Y. Motoyama et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 212 (2012) 13991405
Fig. 5. Methods to eliminate the load caused by restriction of the thermal expansion of the cast part (C) after pouring. (a) Before taking the method and (b) after taking the
method.
3. Testing the device
3.1. Testing programs
The following three tests were conducted to test the device.
1) Dynamical measurement of the load on the casting and the con-
traction of the casting with the device after pouring.
A casting with a ange (90mm90mm10mm, Fig. 4(a))
was cast in a furan sand mold. It was then determined whether
the load on the casting and the contraction of the casting could
be measured simultaneously and dynamically after pouring.
2) Determinationof thepermanent deformationof thecastingafter
shake out.
Aange casting was cast infuransand, anda angeless casting
(Fig. 4(b)) was also cast in a green sand mold. We determined
whether the permanent deformation of the ange casting that
was cast inafuransandmoldcouldbemeasuredusingthedevel-
oped device. The details of the method that was used to measure
the permanent deformation will be discussed in Section 4.2.
3) Determination of the precision of the measured permanent
deformation of the castings after shake out.
When loading occurs during an experiment, the cast part (C)
moves due tothe playinthe jointedbolt andthe elastic deforma-
tion of the tie bars, shafts, rigid plate, and load cell. In this case,
elastic deformation of the device is released after shake out. On
the other hand, if the irreversible displacement of the cast part
(C) occurs between before pouring and after shake out, an error
will occur in the measurement of the contraction of casting after
shake out.
The irreversible displacement of the cast part (C) causes an error
in the measured permanent deformation of the castings after shake
out. This error occurs because the permanent deformation of the
casting is calculated by using the contractions of the casting after
shake out as discussed in detail in Section 4.2.
Therefore, to examine the precision of the measured permanent
deformationafter shake out, the pole was screwedintothe cast part
(C) (Fig. 6). The irreversible displacement of the pole was measured
Table 1
Sand types used in the experiment.
Sand type Condition of sand mix
Green sand Noma sand and 8% moisture
Furan sand mold Yunotsu silica sand and 1.2% furan and 0.9% hardener
and 0.1% moisture
betweenpouring andshakes out using the LVDT, whichwas located
on the reference surface where rib (D) was welded (Figs. 1 and 6).
3.2. Experimental procedures
A full mold casting was used. The foam patterns (Fig. 4) were
covered with a refractory coating prior to the experiments to pre-
vent the penetration of metal into the sand mold.
A furan sand mold and a green sand mold were used (Table 1).
In the experiments using the furan sand mold, the molten alloy
was poured after 90120min after molding. The room tempera-
ture was maintained at 23

C to maintain constant furan sand mold

strength for each experiment. In experiments using the green sand
mold, the mold was hand-rammed. The molten alloy was poured
immediately after molding.
The castings were made from aluminum alloy (Table 2). The
alloy was melted in an argon atmosphere and then degassed via
argonbubbling. The hydrogencontent inthe degassed moltenalloy
was 0.46ml/100g Al. The pouring temperature was 780

C. The liq-
uidus and solidus temperatures of the aluminum alloy were 572
and 494

C, respectively.
The temperature of the casting was measured using an
ungrounded type N thermocouple (outer diameter of the stainless
steel thermocouple probe: 2.3mm) that was cast into at the center
Table 2
Chemical composition of the JIS (Japanese Industrial Standards) AD12.1 (A383.1)
aluminumalloy.
Mass%
Cu Si Mg Fe Mn Zn Ni Sn Al
1.609 11.12 0.216 0.812 0.146 0.408 0.036 0.006 Bal.
Y. Motoyama et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 212 (2012) 13991405 1403
Fig. 6. Images showing the measuring of the displacement of the cast part (C).
of the casting (Fig. 4). The outputs of the load cell, LVDT, and ther-
mocouple were recorded with a data logger (measuring frequency:
2Hz).
4. Results and discussion
4.1. Results of the dynamical measurement of the load on the
casting and the contraction of the casting during cooling
Fig. 7 (rst experiment) shows the dynamical measurements
of the load on the casting and the contraction of the ange cast-
ing (Fig. 4(a)) cast in a furan sand mold from pouring to 50

C.
In Fig. 7, the plots of the data (measured at 2Hz) were thinned
out properly for improved viewability. In Figs. 8 and 9, a compari-
son is shown of the measurements that were made in the rst and
second experiments (the experimental conditions of the rst and
second experiment are the same) to determine the reproducibility
under identical experimental conditions. The difference between
the measurements was not signicant. From Fig. 7, it was clear
that the developed device enabled simultaneous, dynamic mea-
surement of both the load on the casting and the contraction of the
casting during cooling.
Inall experiments, theexpansionandthecompressiveloadwere
measured at the beginning of the solidication process (just below
572

C). It is thought that the cause of the expansion is mainly due

to the evolution of gases (Eskin and Katgerman, 2007; Awano et al.,
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
0
1
2
3
4
5
100 200 300 400 500 600
T
e
n
s
i
l
e

l
o
a
d
,

k
N
C
o
n
t
r
a
c
t
i
o
n
,

m
m
Temperature, C
Tensile load
Contraction
Fig. 7. Tensile load on the casting and the contraction of the ange casting in a furan
sand mold.
First experiment
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
100 200 300 400 500 600
T
e
n
s
i
l
e

l
o
a
d
,

k
N
Temperature, C
Second experiment
Fig. 8. Reproducibility of the load on the ange casting in a furan sand mold.
1992). The contraction that occurred as the temperature falls from
the temperature of maximum expansion to 45

C was referred to
as the total contraction and was used to measure the permanent
deformation of the casting after shake out.
First experiment
0
1
2
3
4
100 200 300 400 500 600
C
o
n
t
r
a
c
t
i
o
n
,

m
m
Temperature, C
Second experiment
Fig. 9. Reproducibility of the contraction of the ange casting in a furan sand mold.
1404 Y. Motoyama et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 212 (2012) 13991405
Fig. 10. Graph of the contraction and permanent deformation of the castings used in the experiment.
4.2. Measuring the permanent deformation of the casting after
shake out
4.2.1. Method for measuring the permanent deformation
In this study, the permanent deformation of the casting after
shake out (Fig. 10(C)) was calculated by subtracting the total
contraction of the casting that had received a restraining force
(Fig. 10(B)) fromthe total contraction that occurred without a per-
manent deformation (Fig. 10(A)).
4.2.2. Total contraction without permanent deformation
(contraction of the angeless casting cast in green sand mold)
In this section, we discuss the case of a total contraction without
a permanent deformation, as shown in Fig. 10(A). Fig. 11 shows the
-50
0
50
100
150
200
-1
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
0 100 200 300 400 500 600
T
e
n
s
i
l
e

l
o
a
d
,

N
C
o
n
t
r
a
c
t
i
o
n
,

m
m
Temperature, C
Tensile load
Contraction
Fig. 11. Tensile load on the casting and the contraction of the angeless casting in
a green sand mold.
experimental data for the load on the casting and the contraction
of the angeless casting (Fig. 4(b)) for the case where the casting is
cast in a green sand mold. Fig. 11 shows that the maximumtensile
load is considerably smaller for the case of the green sand mold
(approximately 150N) than for the ange casting that was cast in
a furan sand mold (approximately 10kN). Therefore, we concluded
that the total contraction of the angeless casting that was cast in
green sand involves a contraction without a permanent deforma-
tion of the casting. This result is referred to a total contraction
without permanent deformation (Fig. 10(A): 6.25mm).
4.2.3. Total contraction of the casting that had received a
restraining force fromthe sand mold
In this section, we discuss the case of a total contraction that
had received a restraining force from a sand mold, as shown in
Fig. 10(B). Fig. 12 shows the experimental data for the load on the
Fig. 12. Tensile load on the casting and the contraction of the ange casting from
just prior to shake out to shortly after shake out.
Y. Motoyama et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 212 (2012) 13991405 1405
casting and the contraction of the ange casting cast in a furan
sand mold; these data were recorded from just prior to shake out
to shortly after shake out. This Figure shows that the elastic defor-
mation of the casting is released. In this case, the contraction of the
casting increases as the load decreases during shake out. This result
reveals that the elastic deformationaccumulates inthe castinguntil
shake out occurs, and must be released (Fig. 10(D)) when measur-
ing a permanent deformation. To achieve a contraction without an
elastic deformation, shake out was performed using the following
procedure.
If the load on the casting exceeds 500N at 50

C, the sand mold

surrounding the ange of the casting is removed until the load on
the casting decreases to less than 500N.
A load value of 500N was chosen because this load is suf-
ciently smaller than the maximumtensile load of the ange casting
that was cast in a furan sand mold (i.e., approximately 10kN). A
temperature of 50

C was chosen because it was nearer to room

temperature.
For the casting that received a restraining force from a
sand mold, the total contraction without elastic deforma-
tion (Fig. 10 (B)) was used to determine the permanent
deformation.
4.2.4. Determining the permanent deformation of the ange
casting that was cast in a furan sand mold after shake out
The total contraction without permanent deformation was
6.25mm, and the total contraction of the ange casting that was
cast in a furan sand mold was 4.63mm. Therefore, the permanent
deformation of the ange casting that was cast in a furan sand mold
after shake out was 1.62mm.
Our developed device successfully determined the permanent
deformation of the casting that received a restraining force from
the sand mold after shake out.
4.3. Precision of the measured permanent deformation after
shake out
To determine the precision of the measured permanent defor-
mation of the casting after shake out, the irreversible displacement
of the cast part (C) from the reference surface was examined
between pouring and after shake out. Fromour results of the mea-
suring the irreversible displacement of the part (C) (n=7), it was
foundthat the standarddeviationof the measuredtotal contraction
of the casting (
tc
) was 66m.

tc
= 66m (1)
Because the permanent deformation after shake out is calcu-
lated by subtracting the total contractions, the standard deviation
of the measured permanent deformation after shake out (
pd
) is
93m. This value was determined from the standard deviations
of the measured total contractions (
tc
) and the rules for error
propagation

pd
=

(
tc
)
2
+(
tc
)
2
= 93m (2)
It was foundthat theprecisionof thedevelopeddevicewas equal
to this value when the permanent deformation was measured after
shake out.
In this work, we veried that the developed device was able to
simultaneously and dynamically measure the load on the casting
and the contraction of the casting during cooling. Moreover, the
permanent deformation of the casting after shake out was mea-
sured with the device.
5. Conclusions
In previous studies of the restraint due to a sand mold on the
contraction of a casting during cooling, only the contraction of the
sand casting was examined. In particular, neither the static load
on the casting just before the shake out nor the dynamical load
on the casting during cooling was measured. Therefore, a device
was developed in this study to determine the mechanical interac-
tion between the casting and the sand mold during cooling. Our
conclusions regarding this device are summarized as follows.
1. The developed device enables the simultaneous and dynamical
measurement of the load on the casting and the contraction of
the casting during cooling.
2. The permanent deformation of the casting after shake out was
successfully measured with a precision of 93m.
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