Study of the evolution of transport properties induced by additive processing sand mold using X-ray computed tomography

Abstract

Accurate characterization of the mass transport properties of additively processed sand molds is essential in order to achieve reproducibility of the produced castings and control of gas defects in foundry industries. The present work highlights the potential use of X-ray micro-computed tomography (μ-CT) to characterize the evolution of permeability and some major microstructural features of such additively processed sand molds. The evolution of mass transport properties of sand mold samples under specific processing conditions met in additive manufacturing and its influence on the porosity, the permeability, the tortuosity, and the pore and throat size distributions were characterized from 3D images provided by X-Ray μ-CT. The obtained results showed that the mass transport properties of additively processed sand molds can be closely predicted by using non-destructive in situ methods, such that improvements to the casting can be made to create more optimized 3D printed structures for foundry applications.