Materials Science and Engineering A 413-414 (2005) 52–55

The heat transfer during filling of a high-pressure die-casting shot sleeve

Raimo Helenius a,∗ , Otto Lohne a , Lars Arnberg a , Hans I. Laukli b
a Department of Material Science and Technology, NTNU, Trondheim, Norway
b Hydro Aluminium, R&D Materials Technology, Sunndalsøra, Norway

Received in revised form 21 July 2005

Abstract
Microstructures in high-pressure die-cast products (HPDC) are important for the mechanical properties. During filling of the shot sleeve, the
liquid metal dissipates superheat and solidification starts. The solidification may result in externally solidified crystals (ESCs) or cold flakes in the
product [H.I. Laukli, L. Arnberg, O. Lohne, Int. J. Cast Metals Res. 18 (2005) 65–72]. The temperature of the melt in the shot sleeve is influenced by
several parameters, such as liquid metal superheat, the heat transfer coefficient (HTC), surface properties of the shot sleeve and alloy composition.
In order to get a better quantitative understanding of the heat loss during filling, investigations of the temperature history in both liquid metal and
the shot sleeve wall have been carried out. A replica of an industrial shot sleeve was made and filling experiments were carried out. Thermocouples
at different locations and depths in the melt and steel cylinder were used to measure the temperatures. The thermal field in the shot sleeve was
also modelled using the simulation software MAGMASOFT® . The results from the casting experiments and casting simulations were compared
to estimate the heat transfer coefficient.
© 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords: High-pressure die-casting (HPDC); Externally solidified crystals (ESCs); Shot sleeve filling; Heat transfer coefficient (HTC); MAGMASOFT® simulation

1. Introduction 2. Experimental

The high-pressure die-casting (HPDC) process starts by The experimental set-up is shown in Fig. 1.
pouring the melt into a relatively cold shot sleeve before it The shot sleeve which is machined from steel, Orvar Supreme
is forced through gates and runners and into the mould. The quality [4], and is made with the same dimensions as in an
melt temperature and the thermal conditions in the shot sleeve industrial HPDC machine (e.g. the Buhler machine at Hydro
have a great influence on the microstructure in the casting Aluminium Research Centre in Porsgrunn, Norway) can be seen
and, therefore, on the mechanical properties of the component in Fig. 2. Thermocouples are placed in two different positions:
[1]. near to the point where the melt hit the shot sleeve and midway
In recent years advances in the field of numerical modelling, between this point and the end where the runner in the industrial
different simulation tools have been developed that are capable equipment case meets the shot sleeve. The thermocouples are
of predicting filling and solidification in a mould [2]. These placed in the melt (1, 2, 7 and 8) and in the shot sleeve wall
simulation tools depend on physical data [3] that must be as at different depths as shown in Figs. 1 and 2. The assembly is
accurate as possible. Lack of good input values like the heat placed inside a furnace and kept at 250 ◦ C, which is a typical
transfer coefficient (HTC) has made simulations rather crude. mean temperature for the shot sleeve surface when an industrial
In this work, the temperatures in the melt during filling of the process is run at steady state. Melting of the aluminium alloy
shot sleeve and the temperature variations in the shot sleeve is done outside the furnace and the melt is transferred to the
wall have been measured and calculated. By comparing experi- crucible just before casting. A bottom plug in the crucible is
mental results and simulations, the heat transfer coefficients are removed when the melt temperature is 680 ◦ C and the melt flows
determined. into the shot sleeve. The pouring time is about 4.5 s. The tem-
peratures are measured using thermocouples with 1 and 0.5 mm
thickness. A National Instrument data acquisition system
∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +47 73 59 30 11; fax: +47 73 55 02 03. connected to a laptop was utilized for temperature recording.
E-mail address: [Link]@[Link] (R. Helenius). The different filling and surface conditions are shown in Table 1.

0921-5093/$ – see front matter © 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/[Link].2005.08.166
 R. Helenius et al. / Materials Science and Engineering A 413-414 (2005) 52–55 53

formed under conditions like gravity die casting. Due to sym-

metry, only one half of the model was simulated in the longitu-
dinally direction.
A separate volume was constructed, where the thermocou-
ples are located in order to get a finer mesh at these loca-
tions. The physical data for the alloy was determined by using
the solidification model Alstruc [5] and the physical data for
X38CrMoV5 1 was used for the shot sleeve. As a first approach
to determine the HTC value, a previous reported experiment [6]
was used as a first approximation. Simulated and experimental
Fig. 1. Left: a photograph of the set-up. The whole assembly is placed inside
a furnace and kept at 250 ◦ C. Right: sketch of the set-up. The height from the
results were then compared and the HTC value was determined
bottom of the shot sleeve to the tap hole in the crucible is 125 mm. Thermocou- based on best fit. Simulations were performed with the follow-
ples are placed inside the shot sleeve (1, 2, 7 and 8) and in the wall at different ing conditions: no-slip boundary condition applies at the shot
depths and 8 mm apart. sleeve surface, filling ratio of 47%, metal volume consist of about
400,000 sub-volumes, the HTC set to constant, filling time was
set to 4.5 s and solver 3 was used in all simulations. The solution
given by solver 3 is based on the continuity, thermal energy and
the momentum equations. The momentum equation uses the full
Navier–Stokes equation. The filling time during the experiments
was 4.5 s and only this time interval is considered when evalu-
ating the desired HTC values in the shot sleeve. After 4.5 s the
second phase has normally started on a high-pressure die-cast
Fig. 2. Dimensions of the shot sleeve model and the locations of the thermo- machine where the metal is quickly forced into the die cavity.
couples in the model. Left: the outer dimension of the shot sleeve model with
separate thermocouple volume. Right: the location and different depths of the 4. Results and discussion
thermocouples. (All dimensions in mm.)

Table 1
A visual inspection of the metal surface (shot sleeve/metal)
Filling conditions for the casting experiments and shot sleeve surface reveals four zones as sketched in Fig. 3.
No. Metal temperature (◦ C) Shot sleeve surface
Zone 1 Around the hit point with a radius of approx. 15 mm: a smooth
1–3 680 Ground (1000 paper) surface
4–6 680 Oxidized Zone 2 From 15 mm and up to 100 mm away from the hit point: a rough
surface (gas pores/folding of oxides)
Zone 3 In between zones 2 and 4 a mixture of rough and smooth surface
appears.
Table 2 Zone 4 From 120 mm and outwards the surface is smooth
Chemical composition of the industrial A356 alloy
The surface of the shot sleeve was ground in some experi-
Element Wt.%
ments and oxidized in others (not ground after previous casting).
Si 6.88 Considering the oxide layer on the shot sleeve surface after cast-
Fe 0.116
ing 6, it was rougher in zones 1 and 2 while it was smooth in
Ti 0.11
Mg 0.32 zone 4. The different zones that are defined in Fig. 3 affect the
Sr 0.005 measured temperatures as discussed later.
Mn 0.002 The effect of hit point on the measured temperature at position
Na 0.0012 1 is shown in Fig. 4.
P 0.0002
During filling the liquid metal does not dissipate much of its
Al Rest
superheat (<5 K) before hitting the shot sleeve wall, see Fig. 4.
However, if the melt does not hit the thermocouple an apparent
The aluminium alloy was an industrial A356 with chemical loss of superheat is observed, typically <30 K. The velocity of
composition as shown in Table 2. the melt is high at this point and creates a smooth metal surface
The liquidus temperature for the alloy was determined by with a radius of approx. 15 mm. The high velocity creates a
the solidification model program Alstruc [5], Tliq = 616 ◦ C. New turbulent zone around this point that is rough compared to the
metal was used for each casting trial.

3. The computer simulation model

The computer simulation program MAGMASOFT® was

used for simulation of the shot sleeve filling. Filling was per- Fig. 3. Different zones that are defined by visual inspection of the metal surface.
54 R. Helenius et al. / Materials Science and Engineering A 413-414 (2005) 52–55

Fig. 6. The temperature in the shot sleeve wall when the surface was
oxidized—() thermo-couple 3, () no. 4 and (
) no. 6. A constant value
Fig. 4. Temperatures measured with thermocouple no. 1 being 12 mm above the of HTC = 1600 (W/m2 K) is used for the calculated temperatures (♦).
bottom of the shot sleeve and directly underneath the tap hole. The pouring time
is about 4.5 s and Tmelt in the crucible is 680 ◦ C—a super heat of about 64 K.
When the melt hits the thermocouple before hitting the bottom a heat loss of
<5 K is observed. However, if the melt hits the bottom before the thermocouple mocouple 3, indicating that an oxide layer reduces the heat flux
a loss of typically 30 K is observed. Heating time of thermocouple <1 s. across the interface. The melt hit point, however, has not the
same effect with an oxidized surface as it has on the ground
rest of the metal surface of the casting. The hit point affects not surface.
only the measured loss of superheat, the melt flow inside the shot Another indication that the heat transfer is reduced with an
sleeve and the HTC values at other positions are also affected. oxide layer is the temperature measurement at position 7, where
The effect on the HTC value in the ground condition is shown the temperature measurement is performed 12 mm above the
in Fig. 5. shot sleeve surface. The temperature curves shown in Fig. 7
By comparing experimental and simulated results when the are from casting experiments 1 and 6 (ground surface and
shot sleeve was ground, as shown in Fig. 5, different HTC made after three castings without grinding, respectively). Where the
the best fit. The simulated heat transfer coefficients that fit the shot sleeve is oxidized the temperature of the melt far away
experimental results are between 3500 and 5500 W/m2 K for from the hit point has a higher maximum temperature, typically
position 3. The variations are most likely due to variation in hit 10–15 K, compared to the experiments when the shot sleeve is
point. If the melt hits the shot sleeve surface closer to position 3 ground. In the first phase of the filling the difference seems to be
a higher temperature will be recorded, and further away it will larger.
be lower, as are the case for the two different measurements. However, only small variations between oxidized and ground
For the two lower curves, positions 4 and 6, the location is in surface are measured in positions 9–12. When comparing mea-
an area corresponding to zone 2 and the simulation results in a sured and calculated temperature the best fit was obtained with
lower HTC of 1600 W/m2 K. In this area, the flow is turbulent constant HTC values between 4 and 5000 W/m2 K. This indi-
and the contact area between the alloy and the shot sleeve wall cates a good thermal contact between the alloy and the shot
is reduced. sleeve wall and that the oxide layer must be thin far from the hit
The results from the oxidized condition, shown in Fig. 6, a point.
lower HTC seems to fit the experimental curve also for ther- The results are summarized in Fig. 8.
In Fig. 8 different HTC values at the different locations and
areas mentioned earlier are shown.

Fig. 5. Temperature variations in the shot sleeve wall at different depths and
positions. The shot sleeve surface was ground before casting. The two upper
curves () are both from thermocouple 3 at two different castings, the lower
one when the melt hits thermocouple 1 and the upper when it hits closer to Fig. 7. The temperature measured in the melt 140 mm from the hitting
position 3. The two lower curves are from the thermocouples 4 () and 6 (
). point—thermocouple 7 being 12 mm above the shot sleeve wall. The tempera-
The curves marked (♦) are calculated values using a constant value of HTC ture rises earlier and faster when the shot sleeve wall is oxidized. The super heat
(W/m2 K). is lost in both cases.
 R. Helenius et al. / Materials Science and Engineering A 413-414 (2005) 52–55 55

(b) An apparent loss of superheat when missing the ther-

mocouple: typically 30 K.
(ii) The HTC values vary from 3500 to 5500 W/m2 K directly
underneath the crucible when the shot sleeve wall is ground.
After several castings, without grinding, the shot sleeve sur-
face had an oxide and a reduction in HTC is observed,
typically around 1600 W/m2 K.
(iii) At a position 15–100 mm away from the hit point, a typical
HTC is 1600 W/m2 K due to turbulence in the melt which
creates a rough surface of the castings (oxide folding/gas
porosity).
(iv) Further away from the hit point the superheat is lost. The
loss is higher when the shot sleeve is ground.
(v) The temperatures measured in the shot sleeve wall, positions
Fig. 8. Schematic representation of the shot sleeve surface showing areas with
different heat transfer characterisations.
9–12, are affected by the surface condition but to a minor
degree.
5. Conclusions
Acknowledgments
The microstructure controls the mechanical properties in die
casting and depends on the thermal history of the melt as well as The present work was funded by the project Strategic Univer-
the cooling conditions. An important parameter is the heat trans- sity Program and partners: The Norwegian Research Council,
fer coefficient (HTC), which is a measure of the extent of heat Norsk Hydro ASA and NTNU. The authors thank the partners
flux across the metal–mould interface. The HTC is not a well- for financial support.
documented parameter in the HPDC process and the work done
here tries to shed some light on that parameter with respect to References
the filling of a shot sleeve. This is done by comparing the results
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HTC values have been found and the following conclusions can [2] P. Cleary, J. Ha, V. Alguine, T. Nguyen, Appl. Math. Model. 26 (2002)
be drawn: 171–190.
[3] S. Neves, W. Schafer, P.N. Hansen, Int. J. Thermophys. 5 (2002)
1391–1399.
(i) Two different features are found considering the loss of
[4] [Link]
superheat from crucible to shot sleeve: [5] A.L. Dons, E.K. Jensen, Y. Langsrud, E. Tromborg, S. Brusethaug, Metall.
(a) A loss of superheat when the melt hits the thermocouple: Mater. Trans. A 30 (1999) 2135–2146.
<5 K, [6] P. Schmidt, Mater. Sci. Eng. A 173 (1993) 271–274.