There are many factors that affect casting qualtiy. At the Symposium in 1987, John McCloskey covered in detail the effect of surface areas and volume on fluid flow and heat transfer during the solidification process. This relates back to the 1939 work of Chorinov, which proposed using volume-to-surface area to calculate freezing times to help determine gating size. Is there a way to utilize these calculations to demonstrate the effect of volume-to-surface area ratios on casting quality? An attempt will be made to cast five shapes in two different sets. One set will all have the same volume. Another will all have the same surface area. Keeping all other parameters constant, the effect of these two parameters will be studied. Gating sizes will then be altered according to Chorinov's theroy and the effects will be observed. Hopefully, the outcome will be a better understanding of how we can gate a part based on its size and shape.

Author: Constantino Volpe