Date of Award

2008

Publication Type

Master Thesis

Degree Name

M.A.Sc.

Department

Mechanical, Automotive, and Materials Engineering

Keywords

Engineering, Materials Science.

Supervisor

Hu, Hongfa (Mechanical, Automotive & Materials Engineering)

Rights

info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess

Abstract

This thesis proposed an optimization technique for design of gating system parameters of a light metal casting based on the Taguchi method with multiple performance characteristics. Firstly, the casting model with a gating system was designed and exported as International Graphics Exchange Standard (IGES) models by Unigraphic NX4.0. Based on the IGES models of the casting, Finite Element (FE) Models were generated using Hypermesh software. Then, mold filling and solidification processes of the castings were simulated with the MAGMASOFT. Finally, the simulation result can be converted to numerical data according to the 3D coordinates of the FE model by MAGMALink module of MAGMASOFT . The various designs of gating systems for the casting model were generated and the simulated results indicated that gating system parameters significantly affect the quality of the castings. To obtain the optimal process parameters of the gating system, the Taguchi method including the orthogonal array, the signal to noise (S/N) ratio, and the analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used to analyze the effect of various gating designs on cavity filling and casting quality using a weighting method. The gating system parameters were optimized with evaluating criteria including filling velocity, shrinkage porosity and product yield.

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