Optimum design of sprue well using computer simulation and experimental study

The optimal design of sprue well in of aluminum sand casting process is considered ‎in the present study. The lack of is appropriate design for this component of gating ‎system could cause filling defects such as sand erosion, oxide films and gaseous ‎bubbles trap within the melt. In this study, formerly suggested designs in the ‎literature are firstly examined and then a new optimal design, based on logical try-‎and-error using computer simulation, is introduced to avoid their limitations. The ‎performance of new design is compared to former ones by means of computer ‎simulation. Finally, to validate simulation results, experimental studies are conducted ‎using water and molten metal fluid flow in side transparent sand mold. A high speed ‎camera is employed to capture the fluid flow pattern in the transparent mold. The ‎reasonable agreement between experimental results and computational ones support ‎the validity of numerical simulation and feasibility of presented new design.‎‎