Formation mechanism and criterion of linear segregation in ZL205A alloy

Abstract The experiments and numerical simulation were conducted for ZL205A aluminum alloy cylindrical shell casting. The formation mechanism of the linear segregation produced by the low pressure die casting (LPDC) process was investigated. And the heat transfer of the casting during solidification process was analyzed by simulation technique, resulting from the information of linear segregation obtained by plenty of experiments. The new linear segregation criterion was proposed through the simulation and experimental results. It was found that the melting metal with high Cu contents was feeding the crack shrinkage formed by the tearing under the effect of feeding pressure during the later solidification, which led to the formation of linear segregation. The control methods for the linear segregation were suggested based on the proposed mechanism. Finally, the criterion of linear segregation was confirmed by the production of the actual castings.