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Intermetallics 16 (2008) 130e138

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Centrifugal casting of TiAl exhaust valves

P.X. Fu, X.H. Kang, Y.C. Ma, K. Liu, D.Z. Li*, Y.Y. Li
Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 72 Wenhua Road, Shenyang 110016, China
Received 16 April 2007; received in revised form 3 August 2007; accepted 21 August 2007
Available online 17 October 2007

Abstract

The mould filling process and solidification of TiAl exhaust valves by centrifugal investment casting have been simulated. Two types of run-
ner and gating systems are designed and analysed. In the preliminary design, a ‘‘tree-type’’ set up system is used and a significant amount of
porosity is found in many valves of the simulation result. The fluid field simulations indicate that moulds are not filled well in the preliminary
design, leading to the last hot spots deviating from the center line of castings. Casting defects deviated from the center line of the part, and the
degree of deviation is affected by the mould filling process and temperature fields. Simulation results reveal that castings do not experience
sequential solidification, so the design is not proper for the exhaust valve. Comparing the experimental and simulation results, the range of
Niyama criterion in the centrifugal TiAl casting is defined, which is 0.14e0.20. Several key factors such as pouring temperature, mould tem-
perature and rotation speed are studied in detail. An optimized design is developed in which valves are rearranged to reduce the neighboring heat
radiation effect, and the gate size is enlarged to keep the feeding path open. Sound exhaust valves have been produced successfully using the
optimized technique.
2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: A. Titanium aluminides, based on TiAl; C. Casting; C. Near-net-shape manufacturing; G. Automotive uses

1. Introduction
One of the most important problems in the modern car
industry is the pollution of the environment by exhaust fumes.
Among automotive engine parts, the exhaust valve has been
a particular focus of the drive for increasing efficiency. The
substitution of light weight materials for steel [1e4] is an
effective approach to reduce pollutant emissions. At present,
TiAl alloy appears to be an ideal candidate material of the
exhaust valve due to its low density, high specific strength,
high stiffness and fatigue resistance at increased temperatures
[5,6]. There are three traditional methods to shape TiAl alloy:
forging, powder metallurgy (PM) and casting. It is difficult for
the TiAl alloy to take shape by forging due to its inherent poor-
deformability and high machining losses [7,8]. The powder
metallurgy route has been limited by the processing of TiAl
* Corresponding author. Tel.: þ86 24 23971281; fax: þ86 24 23971429.
E-mail address: dzli@imr.ac.cn (D.Z. Li).
powder [8,9]. In contrast, the works by Jones [10], Liu [6]
and Sheng et al. [11] indicated that centrifugal casting process
had significant advantages.
The conventional trial and error method of designing cast-
ing process based on experience or manual craft often results
in higher cost and longer cycle of preproduction. One typical
case is the researches about the centrifugal casting. The cen-
trifugal casting of investment moulds for the production of TiAl
exhaust valves is restricted in use, because the quality of
products is highly sensitive to damage as a result of in-
appropriate processing conditions and mould design. So the
design based on computer simulation and real-time radiogra-
phy technology is needed because it can improve quality, reduce
cost and shorten preproduction time obviously [12e14]. Great
promise and potential have been shown by using numer- ical
simulation.
In this paper, computer simulation and X-ray inspection
technologies are adopted to investigate the centrifugal invest-
ment casting process for the production of TiAl exhaust
valves.

0966-9795/$ - see front matter 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.intermet.2007.08.007
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2. Design 1: a preliminary design Table 2

Thermophysical properties of TiAl alloy varied with temperature

2.1. Numerical simulation Temperature Density Specific Thermal

( C) (kg/m3) heat conductivity
(J/kg K) (W/m K)
The mould filling and solidification processes of TiAl cast

exhaust valves have been simulated using the ProCAST pack- 25 3857 598 13.2
200 630 16.7
age. The finite element method (FEM) code which employs 400 667 20.2
CarreaueYasuda viscosity model to describe the behavior of 600 703 23.1
shear fluids in centrifugal casting has been chosen. The tran- 800 740 25.3
sient NaviereStokes equations for a Newtonian fluid are the 1600 3676 786 31
basis of the ProCAST model. An enthalpy method is used to 1800 3612 794 37
solve the phase transition problem during solidification. The
thermophysical material properties of the casting and mould
materials are summarized in Tables 1 and 2. cooling rate ‘‘L’’ and the temperature gradients ‘‘G’’. The def-
The initial processing parameters used in the simulation are inition of G is as follows:
pouring temperature 1690 C, filling time 6 s, pre-heated
2 2 2 1=2
mould temperature 900 C and rotation speed 450 rpm. vT vT vT
G¼ ð1Þ
þ þ
vx vy vz

2.2. Experiments
where T is the temperature.
The TiAl alloy exhaust valve casting consists of the head The cooling rate is calculated using a linear interpolation
with the dimension Ø 39 5.2 mm, and the stem with Ø between two temperatures, and L is defined as follows:
8.2 100 mm as shown in Fig. 1. In order to achieve a high Tupper Tlower

metal yield and production efficiency, a ‘‘tree-type’’ wax as- L¼ ð2Þ

sembly set up is used, as shown in Fig. 2. Due to heat transfer
and solidification, 24 parts with some angles upward are
placed on the tree in a regular formation to reduce part conges-
tion. The three-dimensional (3D) model of exhaust valve
based on the first design is shown in Fig. 2.
The alloy used in this study has a nominal composition of
Ti45Al8Nb1B (at.%). Cast parameters used in the experiments
are the same as those in the simulation. The one-step melting
and centrifugal casting process is adopted to reduce the cost of
castings. It means that when the temperature of the molten al-
loy and rotation speed of the ceramic mould are adjusted to the
pre-determined parameters, the liquid is directly poured into the
turning Al2O3 mould. A sophisticated 3D X-ray inspection
system is used to inspect defects in exhaust valves.
2.3. Results and discussion
The mould filling process and solidification are calculated.
Casting defect examination function RGL and ISOCHRONS
in the ProCAST software are better than others. Function
RGL is able to calculate the solidification rate ‘‘R’’, the
tupper tlower
where t is the time when the temperature reaches T.
If the following parameters, i.e. a ¼ 1.0; b ¼ 0; c ¼ 1.0;
d ¼ 0.5 are used in the equation M ¼ aRb Gc Ld , we can get
the Niyama criterion (Nc) [15]:
p ffiffiffi
M ¼ G= T_ > constant ð3Þ
where the constant is dependent on the alloy being cast.
The criterion function of Niyama is size-independent while
it is alloy-dependent. Fig. 3(a) shows the experimental results,
and Fig. 3(b) shows the simulation results. All the cast para-
meters used in the simulation are the same as those of the
experiment. Seven Niyama criteria (0.12, 0.14, 0.16, 0.18,
0.20, 0.22, 0.24) are shown in the simulation results, as shown
in Fig. 3(b). The results indicate that when the Niyama crite-
rion is chosen from 0.14 to 0.20, the simulation results match
well with the experimental results. When the Niyama criterion
is chosen as 0.12 or 0.22, the simulation results deviate from
the experimental results. It is concluded that the value of
Niyama criterion has a great influence on simulation results.

D t /m3) 3857
Table 1 e y 3970
n ( Specific heat (J/kg K)
Thermophysical properties of casting and mould materials (constant) s k 598 777
Thermophysical properties TiAl alloy Mould material (Al2O3) i g
39
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Thermal conductivity (W/m K) 13.2 39 5.2

Liquidus temperature ( C) 1554 2323
Solidus temperature ( C) 1478
Latent heat (J/kg K) 435 100

.2

120

Environment temperature ( C) 22 22
Fig. 1. Schematic illustration of the cast valve.

Ø8
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Fig. 2. 3D model of cast valves in the preliminary design.

Furthermore, according to the experimental results and simu-

lation results, the critical value of the Nyiama criterion for
this study is 0.18, as shown in Fig. 3(b).
All the cast exhaust valves have porosities with different
degrees, as shown in Fig. 3. The results indicate that casting
defects are concentrated near the center of cast exhaust valves,
and the porosity is serious. Casting defects are affected by the
mould filling process and the solidification of the cast valve.
Because of the centrifugal effects, mould filling is different
from static mould filling. The filling process is divided into
forward filling and backward filling regimes. Cast exhaust
valves are filled along the inside of the shell surface, on the
side dragging behind the direction of the rotation. At first
the melt is filled along the shell surface, leaving the other
part unfilled, as shown in Fig. 4. In the forward filling process,
when cast exhaust valves are filled and the melt does not reach
the casting shell bottom, the shell is half-filled and the solidi-
fication occurs in the interface between the forward filled field
and the shell inner surface, as shown in Fig. 4. The thickness
of the solidified material is affected by the length of the cavity Fig. 3. Experimental and calculated porosities of cast valves in the preliminary
and the filling velocity. The longer length of the cavity leads to design. (a) X-ray scanning image, (b) predicted porosity. A: Nc ¼ 0.12, B:
a longer time when the backward filling returns, and resulting Nc ¼ 0.14, C: Nc ¼ 0.16, D: Nc ¼ 0.18, E: Nc ¼ 0.20, F: Nc ¼ 0.22, G:
in a larger thickness of the solidified layer. When the backward Nc ¼ 0.24 (green areas represent porosity, dark areas represent the casting in
the viewing direction). (For interpretation of the references to colour in this
wave finally reaches this section, the shell cavity will be filled figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)
completely. So the preliminary design of runner system results
in surface turbulence. Splash and folding-over of the melt are The research results [16] indicated that the mechanical proper-
observed when the liquid melt enters the mould cavity. Fur- ties of the TiAl alloy casting were mainly related to cast fea-
thermore, the mould filling process has great influence on tures. The mechanical properties could not be easily optimized
the temperature field of exhaust valves. The temperature of by any additional post-HIP heat treatment. Therefore, increas-
the parts that are filled by forward filling process is low, and ing the input molten metal and increasing filling velocity can
the temperature of the parts filled by backward filling is decrease the deviation.
high. So the temperature of exhaust valves does not experience The simulation results indicate that the cast valve does not
sequential solidification, as shown in Fig. 5. The rapid return experience sequential solidification, and temperature field has
of the back wave ensures that any porosity is not greatly great influence on the potential porosity location, as shown in
shifted from the center line. If the porosity in cast exhaust Fig. 5. The A areas in Fig. 5(b) and the B areas in Fig. 5(d) of
valves deviates significantly from the center line, cast exhaust cast exhaust valves tend to hold heat much longer than the rest
valves unfortunately bend during hot isostatic pressing (HIP). of the part. Therefore, feeding paths back to the gate are cut
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Fig. 4. Mould filling simulation results of the cast exhaust valve in the preliminary design at different times. (a) t ¼ 3.37 s, (b) t ¼ 3.43 s, (c) t ¼ 3.48 s,
(d) t ¼ 3.54 s.
off prematurely and then produce shrink defects. The experi-
mental and simulation results indicate that porosities near
the center of the stem are serious, as shown in Fig. 3. For
the simulation results, the temperature field of cast exhaust
valves is also affected by neighboring heat radiation effect be-
sides the mould filling process. In the preliminary design, 24
parts with some angles upward are placed on the tree in a reg-
ular formation. As the distance of each part is limited, the
neighboring heat radiation effect does have much influence
on the temperature field of the exhaust valves. The neighbor-
ing radiation effects keep some exhaust valves with high tem-
perature, so the solidification time of those exhaust valves is
long and castings do not solidify well. Castings near the mid-
dle of the mould are influenced greatly in the preliminary de-
sign. Because of both the filling order and radiation effects,
castings have not benefited from sequential solidification
(i.e. directional solidification) towards a source of feed metal.
The temperature of parts of the cast valve first filled by for-
ward filling are lower than that of parts filled by the return
wave. A higher temperature can be found from the parts filled
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by the back wave. In addition, the feeding paths tend to be cut
off prematurely because the distance required to be fed is long,
as shown in Figs. 5 and 6. It is easy to produce defects in the
poorly fed regime in the center of the long valve stems. It is
concluded that enlarging the feeder to keep the feeding path
open and increasing the temperature gradient are useful for re-
ducing porosity.
From simulation results, cast parameters are seen to be im-
portant. Accordingly, six sets of simulations are carried out in
an effort to optimize the cast parameters. The cast parameters
used in the simulation are shown in Table 3. Although it will
be noted that the range of each of the parameters is not as large
as would be desirable for an experiment targeted at optimizing
parameters, the casting of TiAl is particularly constrained by
experimental difficulties, so that the range of conditions listed
here is probably as wide as can be achieved with current melt-
ing and casting technology.
Potential porosity locations of casting simulation results of
six projects used in the first design are shown in Fig. 7. The
results indicate that all the exhaust valves have defects, and
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Fig. 5. Temperature field simulation results of the cast valve in the preliminary design at different times. (a) t ¼ 5.35 s, (b) t ¼ 5.50 s, (c) t ¼ 11.87 s, (d) t ¼ 19.45 s.
that the defects are caused by the filling order and temperature
effects. Compared to other projects, project 4 has less potential
porosity as shown in Fig. 7(d). The liquid superheat has a great
effect on the complete filling time for the head of the valve, as
shown in Fig. 8. The simulation results indicate that the higher
the liquid superheat is, the longer is the solidification time. In
project 6, the solidification time is about 43 s, while the solid-
ification time of project 1 is 28 s, as shown in Fig. 8(a). When
the pouring temperature is from 1650 C to 1740 C, the tem-
perature gradient of exhaust valves has increased little, as
shown in Fig. 8. When castings have large temperature gradi-
ent, exhaust valves will experience sequential solidification,
and castings will be defect-free. From the results, it is no use
for exhaust valves just to increase the metal superheat while
the temperature gradient is small. So the higher pouring tem-
perature induces longer solidification time of casting in the pre-
liminary design.
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The pouring rate and pouring temperature of the molten
metal have apparent influences on the defects of exhaust
valves. For a given pouring temperature, the faster the pouring
rate is, the longer is the time interval between pouring the mol-
ten metal into the mould and completing the solidification and
greater is the possibility of cast defect formation. In the case of
the lower pouring temperature and pouring rate, the molten
metal spreads forward under the action of centrifugal force.
Because of the contact with the mould, the front-flowing mol-
ten metal loses a large amount of heat, which causes the tem-
perature to drop suddenly. So it may no longer flow to the cold
end of the mould. Therefore, control of the pouring tempera-
ture and pouring rate is clearly beneficial to the prevention
of the formation of cast defects.
Furthermore, the previous research results [6] demonstrated
that the O increase vertically came from the interaction of the
higher superheated liquid with CaO crucible. The research
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Fig. 6. Fraction of solid simulation results of the cast valve in the preliminary design at different times. (a) t ¼ 11.87 s, (b) t ¼ 14.52 s, (c) t ¼ 18.65 s (gray areas
represent solid, red areas represent liquid).

results [17] indicated that superheating temperature and holding
time played an important role in the interaction between melting
crucibles with Y2O3 and the molten TiAl. With increase in the
superheating temperature and holding time, the O contents were
higher. From Fig. 7(d) and (e), project 5 with pouring tem-
perature of 1730 C is not better than project 4 with pouring tem-
perature of 1710 C. Thus, a pouring temperature range from
1690 C to 1720 C is adopted. Fig. 7(b) and (c) indicates
that on increasing the centrifugal rotation speed from 400 to
450 rpm, at the same pouring temperature (1690 C) and mould
temperature (900 C), the filling rate does not improve and the
higher rotation speed has no significant effect on porosity. Addi-
tional practical considerations indicate that if the filling time is
too long, the heat loss during filling will be too high. Of course, if
the filling time is too short, the large filling system will allow
room for turbulence under the centrifugal force. It is concluded
that 5e7 s is better for the filling time.
The simulated and experimental results show that there are
porosity defects in many exhaust valves due to both mould fill-
ing and temperature field. Due to the thermal effect of neigh-
boring valves, those parts kept hot by neighboring parts suffer
larger defects near the center stems, as shown in Figs. 4 and 5.
It is concluded that the preliminary design is not proper for
exhaust valves.
3. Design 2: an optimized design
3.1. Design of gating system
From simulation results of the preliminary design, there are
two primary solutions to improve the part quality. One is to re-
duce the number of parts on the tree, thereby eliminating radia-
tion effects that kept some of the parts hotter than others
depending on their positions on the tree. The other is to increase
the gate size, thereby keeping the feeding path open longer. Ob-
viously, reducing the number of parts in the set up drastically de-
creases the efficiency of metallic yield. Therefore, it is chosen to
increase the gate size moderately, and not reduce the number of
parts on the wax assembly but change positions of parts into
a staggered arrangement, as shown in Fig. 9.
Cast parameters used for the new design of the centrifugal
investment casting mould are pouring temperature 1710 C,
mould temperature 900 C and rotation speed 400 rpm. The
3D model of the new design is shown in Fig. 9.

Table 3
The parameters used in the simulation project
Simulation project Project 1 Project 2 Project 3 Project 4 Project 5 Project 6
Pouring temperature ( C) 1650 1690 1690 1710 1730 1740
Filling time(s) 7 6 7 7 7 7
Mould temperature ( C) 800 900 900 950 950 950
Rotation speed (rpm) 400 450 400 400 400 420
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3.2. Results and discussion

Because of the centrifugal effects and the enlarged filling

gate, mould filling and temperature field are now modified. The
melt flowing along the inner shell surface just leaves the
center unfilled at the initial filling, as shown in Fig. 10. It
indicates that the mould filling process in the optimized

Fig. 8. Temperature variation curves of cast valves during solidification in the

preliminary design. (a) Temperature variation curve of A point, (b) tempera-
ture variation curve of B point.

design is much better than and completely different from

that in the preliminary design. It should be attributed to the en-
larging filling gate. In the preliminary design, the mould filling
process is divided into forward filling and backward filling,

Fig. 7. Potential porosity locations of casting simulation results in the prelim-

inary design. (a) Project 1, (b) project 2, (c) project 3, (d) project 4, (e) project
5, (f) project 6 (green areas represent porosity, dark areas represent the casting
in the viewing direction). (For interpretation of the references to colour in this
figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.) Fig. 9. 3D model of cast valves in the modified design.
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Fig. 10. Mould filling simulation results of the cast exhaust valve in the modified design. (a) t ¼ 2.266 s, (b) t ¼ 2.322 s, (c) t ¼ 2.387 s, (d) t ¼ 2.406 s.

which have great influence on temperature field of valves. The It should be attributed to the random mould filling of cast ex-
castings do not experience sequential solidification for the bad haust valves. Under the centrifugal force, the molten TiAl al-
mould filling. In the optimized design, the melt fills the shell loy in the running and gating systems is also rotary, when the
along the inner surface and leaves exhaust valve’s center un- metals reach the shell. For the bottom layer, the parts on the
filled. All of those are affected by the enlarging filling gate. ‘‘tree-type’’ shell are filled at the same time in initial filling.
The molten TiAl alloy put into the shell is much more at the However, as the mould filling goes on, the parts are filled
initial filling, and only the center is filled later. So the center
field holds heat longer than the rest of the casting, and cast
valves have a good temperature gradient. The castings benefit
from sequential solidification for the feeding paths remain
open longer. The simulation results indicate that only one or
two exhaust valves have a slight defect, as shown in Fig. 11.

Fig. 11. Potential porosity locations in the modified design (green areas repre-
sent porosity, dark areas represent the casting in the viewing direction). (For
interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is Fig. 12. The modified design showing (a) X-ray scanning images, (b) simula-
referred to the web version of this article.) tion results (no porosity).
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randomly in different layers. Some exhaust valves in the lower
layer are filled later than those in the upper layer. So the random
mould filling results in some bad exhaust valves. The random-
ness in the modified design is higher than that in the preliminary
design, because the filling gate is enlarged and the parts are
changed in staggered arrangement. From the simulation results,
only one or two exhaust valves are affected, so the influence is
small. In the modified design the increased filling gate effec-
tively keeps the feeding path open, and it can reduce the poros-
ity. In addition, the harmful effects of radiation are reduced by
changing the position of the parts on the tree. The parts benefit
from sequential solidification, because the feeding paths are
kept open. Using the modified design confirms that most of
the valves have no porosity, as shown in Fig. 12.
The modified design improves both the soundness and the
metallic yield of the finished products. The feasibility for
mass production and cost effectiveness of TiAl automotive
valves are being assessed.
4. Conclusions
The mould filling process and solidification of TiAl exhaust
valves by centrifugal investment casting have been simulated.
The Nc in the centrifugal investment casting of Ti45Al8Nb1B
alloy is identified in the range of 0.14e0.20, and the optimized
Nc is 0.18 in this study. Several key factors including the pour-
ing temperature, the mould temperature and the rotation speed
are studied in detail. The optimized cast parameters for the
centrifugal investment casting process of one design of an in-
vestment mould of TiAl exhaust valves are found to be pouring
temperature 1690e1720 C, mould temperature 900e950 C
and rotation speed 400e450 rpm. In the preliminary design,
the porosity deviation from the center line is dependent on the
sequence of solidification, which is affected by forward and
backward flows in the mould filling process. The whole filling
process is divided into forward filling and backward filling in
the preliminary design, which results in valves not experiencing
sequential solidification. The potential porosity locations are
affected by the mould filling process and temperature field.
Keeping the feeding path open by enlarging the gate and
reducing neighboring radiation effects encourage sequential
solidification and can therefore reduce or eliminate porosity
in the modified design.
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Acknowledgements
The authors are indebted to Professor John Campbell at the
University of Birmingham, UK for valuable discussion and
modification of English.
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