Focused concern and education related to filling damage and oxide inclusions has been widely promoted among the foundry industry in the past three decades; with special regards to aluminum. However, predicting the quantifiable damage that oxide film may cause to the quality of aluminum castings during the filling process remains largely theoretical, due to a lack of supporting data. The purpose of this experiment was to turn on and turn off turbulent filling conditions consistent with bifilm entrainment, in order to obtain the needed data required to predict the actual porosity and tensile damage these conditions may cause to aluminum castings. Filling conditions ranging from tranquil to turbulent were generated within a test casting by means of three different gravity-fill gating system, trialed in the study; C355, A356, E357 and A206. Radiography and tensile testing were used to quantify the resulting damage; with SEM analysis of fracture surfaces.
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