Fatigue Properties of Aluminum Castings : The Role of Both Visible and Hidden Damage

High integrity castings are growing in importance as the use of castings will find its way to more and more challenging applications that require higher fatigue performance. The new requirements on strengths, ductility and fatigue strength are dramatically increasing. To ensure higher fatigure performance of aluminum alloy castings, the effect of the overall damage given to liquid aluminum during the entire melt prepapartion, handling and mold filling should be understood. This damage has both a vsible component, i.e., pores, as well as a hidden component. Both components of damage need to be first quantified, and then reduced by careful liquid metal processing procedures.

This webinar will address the damage given to liquid metals through common aluminum foundry practices. The effect of these practices on the damage given to liquid aluminum and subsequently to fatigue performance of aluminum castings will be demonstrated. Special emphasis will be given to the hidden damage that does not appear of non-destructive tests but significantly impair the fatigue performance