한국주조공학회

During the casting process, it is possible to minimize shrinkage and blowholes by modifying the casting design. However, it is impossible to eliminate these factors completely. Therefore, mechanical design engineers apply a sufficient safety factor owing to the possibility of insufficient performances of the cast products. In this paper, prediction method of the fatigue life of cast products containing shrinkage is conducted by using CT (computed tomography) and the SSM (shape simplification method), and additional fatigue analyses are carried out. The analysis results are then compared to results from actual experiments on samples with shrinkage defects. It is found to be that the considering actual shrinkage in cast products by means of stress and fatigue analyses is more accurate and effective. It is also considered that the proposed hot spot method provides us a good tool to predict the fatigue lifes of cast product