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Effect of Mold Hardness on Microstructure and

Contraction Porosity in Ductile Cast Iron
ARTICLE in JOURNAL OF IRON AND STEEL RESEARCH INTERNATIONAL APRIL 2011
Impact Factor: 0.68 DOI: 10.1016/S1006-706X(11)60048-4

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Jafar Khalil-Allafi

Behnam Amin-Ahmadi

Sahand University of Technology

University of Antwerp

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JOURNAL OF IRON AND STEEL RESEARCH, INTERNATIONAL. 2011, 18(4): 44-47, 67

Effect of Mold Hardness on Microstructure and

Contraction Porosity in Ductile Cast Iron
Jafar Khalil-Allafi

Behnam Amin-Ahmadi

(1. Faculty of Materials Engineering, Sahand University of Technology, Tabriz 513351996, Iran;

2. Department of

Materials Science and Engineering, Sharif University of Technology, Tehran 1136511 155, Iran)
Abstract: The effect of mold hardness on the microstructure of ductile iron and the contraction porosity was investigated. Molds with different hardnesses (0.41, 0. 48, 0. 55, 0. 6 2 MPa) and a sand mold prepared by Coz method
were used. The influence of silicon content on the induced expansion pressure owing to the formation of graphite was
also investigated. The contraction during solidification can be compensated by an induced expansion owing to the
graphite relief when the hardness of mold increases; therefore, the possibility of achieving a sound product without
using any riser increases.
Key words: ductile iron; graphite; preheating temperature; carbide; shrinkage porosity

Production of a sound ductile iron without any

porosities and shrinkage defects in the green sand
mold is difficult. Special consideration should be
given to the control of contraction during casting of
ductile iron. It is known that the contraction occurs
in metals during cooling from the liquid state. This
process does not happen in the ductile iron because
of the graphite formation during the eutectic solidification. It is obvious that the specific volume of the
graphite is higher than that of the iron phase; thus,
the induced volume changes owing to the graphite
formation in ductile irons can compensate the contraction of the solidification process. Therefore,
there will be no need for using riser in the casting
process of these
During casting and cooling process of ductile iron,
mold cavity enlarges because of the applied thermal
expansion and the induced expansion pressure during
the solidification process of these alloys. Consequently, the increase in the eutectic graphite leads to
an increase in contraction defects owing to the enlargement of the mold cavity. It can be supposed
that the use of high strength molds can decrease the
contraction defects. Besides, there are some other
typical methods to decrease the contraction problems
in ductile iron including the use of additional large
risers, risers with larger neck and the use of the
Biography:Jafar Khalil-Allafi(l965-),

Male, Associate Professor;

exothermal material in the riser. It is convenient to

use a chill as well, But it leads to the decrease in the
casting yield and the increase in the cost of final

product^^^-^].
It is well known that the low pouring temperature of ductile iron leads to the decline in the needed
liquid that should be compensated by the molten
metal in the feeding system. Further cooling results
in the nucleation of graphite particles and the volume
expansion occur. This induces large stresses on the
mold cavity. Increase in the cast product module
leads to an increase in the induced pressure. This
behavior can be used as a self riser feeding in the
ductile iron casting if the deformation of mold cavity
owing to the expansion pressure is prohibitedC5.
With further cooling of the remained molten metal
between grains and dendrites, small contraction defects occurc6. The porosity exists in the warmest
places which are called hot spots. T h e contraction in
the solid state owing to the decrease in the temperature can be compensated by applying additional dimensions on the model design because the riser has
no effect on the content of contraction at this stage
of the solidification p r o c e ~ s [ ~ - ~ .
If the total contraction of ductile iron is compensated by the induced expansion owing to the
graphite formation, the sound product can be obE-mail: allafi@sut. ac. ir;

Received Date: February 23, 2010

Issue 4

Effect of Mold Hardness o n Microstructure and Contraction Porosity in Ductile Cast Iron

tained without using any riser in the casting design.

But if the induced expansion cannot compensate both
the needed liquid owing t o the enlargement of the
mold cavity and the contraction of the solidification
process, porosity defects will appear in the final
product. It is known that casting of the sound ductile iron product without using any riser can be affected by the chemical composition of the alloy, the
mold hardness and the design of the specimen. For
example, owing t o the non-homogenous solidification, the contraction of one part of the specimen
cannot be compensated by other part of the specimenCR'.
I t is indicated that the carbon content has a
more important effect compared with the silicon content on the induced expansion pressure in the ductile
cast iron a t a constant carbon equivalent. However,
silicon has a dominant role in prohibiting the formation of primary carbides[*'.
Important rules that must be considered for the
sound product casting of ductile iron without using
any riser are as follows:
1) High expansion pressure should be induced
by formation of graphite particles in the ductile cast
iron. As mentioned above, the alloy composition
plays an important role in inducing large expansion
pressures. T h e high carbon equivalent guarantees no
carbides formation in the microstructure and increase
in the fluidity of molten metalLs1.
2) Homogenous solidification must occur during
cooling; therefore, a specimen with a homogenous
cross section is needed. If the specimen has a warm
zone owing to the complex specimen design, a directional solidification must be toward the warm zone
and total additional expansions occur in the warm

45

FeSiMg containing magnesium of 5%. The FeSi containing silicon of 75% was used as nucleation agents. Two
kinds of patterns with and without the riser were used in
this research. T h e wood pattern was built in dimensions of 20 m m X 140 m m X 190 mm. T h e gating system has been shown in Fig. 1 ( a ) . T h e molds with
different hardnesses were made by change of mold
ramming to reach 0 . 4 1 , 0. 48, 0. 55, 0. 62 MPa.
T h e effect of silicon content on the graphite precipitation and the induced expansion pressure for molds
with deferent hardnesses was examined. Different
samples were cut from different positions of a casting specimen. T h e density of samples was measured
by the Archimedes method and the mean density of
all samples was considered a s the casting specimen
density. T h e specimen with dimensions of 40 m m X
150 m m X 150 m m with the riser was used [Fig. 1
( b ) ] to examine the effect of mold hardness on the
volume of contraction porosities and the influence of
silicon content on the graphite precipitation. In this
part of experiments, the molds with different hardnesses of 0.413, 0.482, 0.551, 0.621 MPa and a mold

zone18-111

3 ) Mold must be hard enough t o resist against

the induced expansion pressure.
In the present research, the effects of silicon
content and mold hardness on the contraction behavior during the ductile iron casting were investigated.
A balance between the induced expansion and the
contraction during the solidification process has been
achieved by changing the silicon content and the
mold hardness"O-lll.

Materials and Methods

In the present w o r k , the ductile iron was made

by charging scraps, cast iron ingots, returned specimens into an induction furnace. T h e nodulizing
process was performed by the sandwich method with

-I
5 cm

Fig. 1

Board pattern with a gating system (a) and

used pattern with the riser ( b )

Journal of Iron and Steel Research, International

46

prepared by Coz method were used and the silicon

content was 2 % , 2 . 5 % and 3%. Specimens after
casting were measured accurately to examine the
movement of mold wall owing to the induced expansion of graphite formation. T h e microstructure of all
samples was studied using the optical microscope
(Olympus PME3 1.

Results and Discussion

Instability of the mold cavity owing to the induced expansion pressure is one of the important aspects of the grey iron casting. This phenomenon is
more severe in the ductile cast iron because of the
mushy solidification of these alloys. It is well known
that the shell solidification in the grey iron leads to

(a)

Fig. 2

wsi=2%;

the decrease in the applied stresses owing to the induced expansion pressure on the mold cavity by
transferring the pressure into the molten metalc4.
This solidified shell does not exist in the ductile iron
because of its mushy solidification. If the mold wall
resists dimensional changes owing to the induced expansion pressure, the contraction of the austenite
phase would be compensatedi5.
T h e microstructure of the ductile iron with different silicon contents is shown in Fig. 2. T h e increase in the silicon content leads to an increase in
the graphite particles and the ferrite phase. The
sound specimen can be produced owing to the high
graphite precipitation when the chemical composition of the alloy consists of high silicon content.

( b ) wsl=2. 5 % ;

(c) w a = 3 % .

Microstructure of ductile cast iron in sand mold with different amounts of silicon

No contraction was observed visually in the

specimens cast in the sand mold without using any
riser owing to the homogenous solidification of specimensC8. Low thermal conductivity in sand molds
and the mushy solidification of ductile iron lead to
dimensional changes of final products. It was confirmed by measuring the density of cast products.
The measured density of specimens was close to the
theoretical density. The density changes of specimens
with different silicon contents in the ductile iron cast
in a mold with different hardnesses are shown in
Fig. 3 ( a ) . It is obvious that the increase in mold
hardness leads t o the increase in specimen density.
It means that the induced expansion pressure owing

to the graphite precipitation has compensated the

lack of molten metal owing to the contraction of the
austenite phase. At constant mold hardness, the increase of the silicon content in the range of 2 % - 3 %
leads to a decrease in the density except for the mold
with hardness of 0. 62 MPa. It is known that the
graphite precipitation increases when the silicon content increases and thereby the induced expansion
pressure will increase. It can be concluded that in
molds with low hardness, dimensional changes will
be high and the specimen will be scrap. In mold with
hardness of 0. 62 MPa, the increase in the silicon
content leads to an increase in the induced expansion
pressure. However, this induced expansion pressure

Mold ha.rdness/MPa

Fig. 3

VOl. 18

Variation of density ( a ) , height ( b ) and length (c) of ductile iron specimens with
different silicon contents cast in mold with different hardnesses

Issue 1

Effect of Mold Hardness on Microstructure and Contraction Porosity in Ductile Cast Iron

are shown in Fig. 3 ( b ) and ( c ) , respectively. These

changes confirm previous discussion. It is clear that
with the increase in the silicon content, dimensional
changes of final product increases but in the mold
with hardness of 0. 6 2 MPa, the gradient of dimensional changes versus the silicon content declines.
Other experiments were performed using the
riser. In these experiments, a directional solidification was applied to the system. Contraction porosities in the riser for different silicon contents ( 2 % ,
2. 5% and 3 % ) and mold hardnesses ( f r o m 0. 41
MPa up to 0. 62 MPa and the mold prepared by the Co,
method) in ductile cast iron are shown in Fig. 4.

has no negative effect on the final product because

the induced expansion pressure owing to the graphite precipitation compensates the lack of the molten
metal owing to the solidification contraction of matrix phase instead of the enlargement of the mold
cavity. T h u s , in the mold with the hardness of
0. 6 2 M P a , the increase of the silicon content slightly
decreases the density of the specimen. It can be predicted that in the mold with high hardness, the density increases proportionally when the silicon content
increases.
Length and height changes of specimens as a
function of the mold hardness and the silicon content

0.41 0.48

0.55

O.(Z

6&

0.41

(a) w s , = 2 % ;

Fig. 4

0.48

0.56

0.f.Z

(b) ws,=2.5%;

602

0.41

0.48

0.55

0.62

Cq

(c) wsl=3%.

Contraction porosities in riser for ductile cast iron with different silicon contents and mold hardnesses

It can be concluded that for high silicon content

and low mold hardness, dimensional changes of the
mold increases and more contraction exists in the
riser. In the mold prepared b y the Coz method, low
contraction was obtained in the riser owing to high
hardness of the mold.

47

Conclusions
1) T h e hardness of sand mold has an important

effect on the casting of ductile iron without using

any riser. T h e increase in mold hardness leads to an
increase of induced expansion pressures owing to the
graphite precipitation which decreases the contraction of the ductile iron.
2 ) T h e increase in silicon content and the
graphite formation in the matrix lead to the increase
in induced expansion pressure and dimensional changes of the mold cavity. However, in the mold with
high hardness, the precipitation of more graphite
has a positive effect that can compensate the lack of
molten metal owing to the contraction of the liquid
phase.
3 ) T h e increase in silicon content in the casting
of the ductile iron by using the riser leads to an increase of dimensional changes of molds with low
hardness and finally the contraction in the riser increases. However, in molds with high hardness, the

contraction volume in the riser will be low when the

silicon content increases, which is due to the stability
of the mold cavity against dimensional changes.
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thr

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