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Effect of Gating Design on Mold Filling
M. Masoumi, H. Hu

Department of Mechanical, Automotive & Materials Engineering
University of Windsor, Windsor, Ontario, Canada
J. Hedjazi, M. A. Boutorabi
Department of Materials and Metallurgy
Iran University of Science and Technology, Tehran, Iran

Copyright 2005 American Foundry Society

ABSTRACT

During light metal casting processes, the quality of a casting can be considerably affected by the pattern of mold filling. In
this study, the effect of gating design including gate geometry and size on the flow pattern was investigated by pouring
molten metal of aluminium alloy A413 into a sand mold. The direct observation method was used by which various flow
patterns resulting from different gating designs was recorded by a video camera, and further analyzed by a computerized
system. The experimental results indicate that the geometry and size of the gate and the ratio of the gating system has a great
influence on the pattern of mold filling.

INTRODUCTION

Throughout a casting operation, mold filling plays a very significant role in casting quality control [1-12]. Due to the
importance of mold filling, extensive research effort has been made in attempt to study the effect of gating design on the flow
pattern of melt entering the mold [7]. It has been shown that an optimum gating system design could reduce the turbulent
extent of the melt flow, minimize gas and entrap inclusion and dross [11].

The formation of various casting defects could be directly related to fluid flow phenomena involved in the stage of mold
filling [7, 8]. For instance, rigorous streams could cause mold erosion; highly turbulent flows could result in air and
inclusions entrapments; and relatively slow filling might generate cold shuts. Thus, the design of gating/runner as well as
venting/overflow systems has to take into consideration for the proper control of filling pattern.

The first investigation in this field was done in early of 1930s, in high-pressure die-casting, and still the investigation in this
field is continuing [3]. Runyoro et al [9] studied the effect of gate sizes on the entry velocity of molten metal into the
vertically-cast plate mold which was bottom gated. Their results indicate that a critical entry velocity is present during mold
filling, under which oxide entrapment is minimized. Xue et al [10] reported that the gating system ratio plays a more
important role than gate sizes on mold filling. They observed the highest surface wave when the ratio of the gate over sprue
(G: S) reached 0.5. The lowest surface wave was obtained as the ratio of G: S approached 2, which minimized the entrapment
of inclusions in the casting. Furthermore, the work by Fulli [5], Yeh [12] and Xue [10] shows that the geometry of gating
system is another very important factor influencing mold filling patterns. For horizontally-cast plate molds, the numerical
simulation by Hwang and Stoehr [4] demonstrates that mold filling patterns are related to the entrance velocity of melt and
size of casting. However, experimental work on the direct observation of filling flow taking place in a horizontally-cast plate
is limited in the open literature. In this study, the effect of gating design including gate geometry and size on the flow pattern
in the horizontally-cast plate mold is investigated. The direct observation method was employed in which a real-time video
camera was used to record various flow patterns resulting from different gating designs, and further analyzed by a
computerized system. The present paper discusses informative results, which were obtained from experiments carried out in
horizontally casting plates.

EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURES

The cast metal was aluminum alloy A413, and the pouring temperature was set at 750C. The molds were made of silica sand
with AFS 90, which was mixed with 5% silicate sodium as a binder. After molding of a plate casting with a dimension of
18182 cm, the mixture of sand and binder were hardened by blowing the CO
2
gas. Note that all dimensions used in the
remaining content of this paper are in centimeter. A grid glass was fixed in the cope as the top surface of casting for
Paper 05-152(02).pdf, Page 1 of 12
AFS Transactions 2005 American Foundry Society, Schaumburg, IL USA
visualizing the movement of the molten metal front in real time. An overflow pouring cup was used to maintain liquid metal
at a constant level within the cup as shown in Figure 1. The 3-dimensional full casting is schematically illustrated in Figure 2.
It can be seen that the casting plate was filled by a horizontal parting gating system. The pouring basin was obstructed by a
stopper and filled with the superheated molten metal. When the stopper was removed, the melt flowed

Fig. 1. Cross-section of mold.

Fig. 2. Schematic diagram showing the casting and gating system.
Right
Left
Casting
Gate
Runner
Sprue
Pouring
basin
Overflow
Grid glass plate
Upper
Lower

10
20
18
through a sprue and runner, and then entered a horizontal cast plate mold cavity via a gate. The mold filling processes were
recorded by a video camera, and analyzed by a computer software which is capable of clipping 50 frames per second out of
the recorded video.

During casting trials, ten different designs of the gating systems were experimented since the objective of this work (except
one case) was to investigate the effect of size and geometry of gate (size and dimension of runner) on mold filling pattern.
For all the tested designs, the dimension of pouring basin, sprue and runner (except in one case) was kept constant. The
pouring basin and overflow dimensions were as 186.58.5 and 86.55. the cross section of bottom and top of sprue were
as 3.46 cm
2
and 5.4cm
2
. sprue base was cylindrical with diameter of twice of the diameter of bottom sprue and with the
height of 1.5 times of runner thickness. Table 1 lists the dimensions of the gating systems designs in details.

In the first series of experiments with a constant runner dimension of 4.5 2, the gate thickness remained at a constant of 1
cm. But, different gate widths of 3, 5, 7, 9 and 11 were trialed. In the second series, the gate and runner dimensions of 111
and 52.2 were used, respectively. In the third series, the gate dimensions of 91, 4.52 and 61.5 were employed with the
constant gate cross section area of 9 cm
2
. In the fourth series, the gate thickness was varied with a constant gate width of 7
Cm. Three different gate thicknesses of 1, 1.57 and 2 was experimented. Overall, each experiment was duplicated for
multiple times to ensure their repeatability.

Table 1. Gate Sizes and Gating System Ratio

Test No Choke surface
area
(cm
2
)
Runner surface
area
(cm
2
)
Runner
dimensions
(cm)
Gate surface
area
(cm
2
)
Gate
dimensions
(cm)
Gating system
ratio
1 3.46 9 4.52 3 31 1:2.6:0.86
2 3.46 9 4.52 5 51 1:2.6:1.45
3 3.46 9 4.52 7 71 1:2.6:2
4 3.46 9 4.52 9 91 1:2.6:2.6
5 3.46 9 4.52 11 111 1:2.6:3.18
6 3.46 11 52.2 11 111 1:3.18:3.18
7 3.46 9 4.52 9 4.52 1:2.6:2.6
8 3.46 9 4.52 9 61.5 1:2.6:2.6
9 3.46 9 4.52 11 71.57 1:2.6:3.18
10 3.46 9 4.52 14 72 1:2.6:4.55

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

EFFEECT OF GATE WIDTHS ON MOLD FILLING
Typical mold filling patterns, for a fixed ratio of sprue over runner (1:2.6) during the casting trials, are illustrated in Figures
3-7, for the gate dimensions of 31, 51, 71, 91 and 111 respectively, through a sequence of real-time video clips. For
gates 31, 51 and 71, it can be seen that molten metal first flows straightforward into the mold due to its high inertia
pressure (V
2
, where and V are the density and velocity of the melt, respectively). After advancing a certain distance, the
molten metal tends to spread in a direction perpendicular to the path of melt flow. Then, the narrowing of the molten metal
front appears. As the melt reaching the opposite wall, the presence of the back pressure force causes the expansion of the
entire melt flow before splitting in two streams.

With reference to Figure 8, the expansion and narrowing of melt stream may be explained by considering the surface tension
of melt front, which can be expressed:

=
r R
p
1 1
(1)
where is surface tension, r and R are the two radii which define the curvature of the meniscus in two planes at right angles,
and p is restrain pressure due to the presence of surface tension and the curvature change of melt front. As the inertia

0.2 sec 0.3 sec 0.6 sec

1.0 sec 1.2 sec 1.4 sec
Fig. 3. Mold filling pattern of gate 31.

0.2 sec 0.4 sec 0.6 sec

0.8 sec 1.0 sec 1.2 sec


0.2 sec 0.3 sec 0.5 sec

0.7 sec 0.9 sec 1.1 sec


0.2 sec 0.4 sec 0.6 sec

0.9 sec 1.2 sec 1.4 sec


0.2 sec 0.4 sec 0.6 sec

1.0 sec 1.3 sec 1.5sec

Fig. 7. Mold filling pattern of gate 111(1:2.6:3.18).

Fig. 8. Schematic diagram showing the geometry of melt front in a thin section casting.
X
Y
Melt front
Gate
pressure is parallel to the direction of melt flow (Y axis), the surface tension of the melt is locally tangential to the curved
melt front. At each point of the melt front, a resultant pressure exerts due to the combination of the inertia pressure and the
restraining pressure. The resultant pressure could be split locally into two components in X and Y directions. The pressure in
Y direction tends to move the melt straightforward while the one in X direction expands it. At the very first moment of mold
filling, because of the predominance of the inertia pressure, the melt just moves in a straight direction. When flowing further
in mold, however, the melt loses its momentum, and its inertia pressure decreases as a result. Therefore, the effect of the
restraining pressure caused by surface tension becomes dominant, which leads to an expansion of melt shape in the X
direction. But, the expansion results an increase in the radius (R) of the curvature of the melt front. According to equation (1),
it is evident that the restrain pressure decreases as the R arises. The reduction of the restrain pressure causes the occurrence of
melt flow narrowing.

As the gate width increases to 9 cm as shown in Figure 6, however, no expansion of molten metal after entering the mold is
observed, which is contrary to the above-mentioned cases. This is because an increase in the gate width increases the R and
consequently decreases its restraining pressure. Insufficient restraining pressure of molten metal becomes incapable of
keeping melt expanding.. Once the gate being further enlarged to 11, the metal flow deviates from the centerline of the mold,
and moves toward the side close to the sprue after entering the mold.

Upon striking the opposite wall of the mold, for the case with the gate dimensions of 31, the primary melt stream moves to
the two side surface of the mold, and splits into two secondary streams along both sides of the mold. As racing back toward
the entering sidewall of the mold, two secondary streams encounter the primary one. As a result, two vortices form, of which
one is on each side of the gate. The vortex location is the last region to be filled, into which most of available gases and
inclusions in the mold are squeezed to this area near the end of the filling process. For the gate dimension of 51 and 71, the
primary stream spreads outward to both sides of the mold after hitting the wall opposite from the gate. As the spread stream
flows back to the entering sidewall of the mold, the last filled areas forms at the two lower corners along the gate wall of the
mold. In the case of 9 1 , the entire primary stream is expanded by the back pressure once reaching the opposite wall. As
the filling proceeds, the two lower corners along the gate wall of the mold become the last filled regions, which is similar to
that of the cases with the gate of 51 and 71. However, no secondary streams form during the entire period of mold filling
in these three cases of 51, 71 and 91.

For the gate of 11 1, the expansion of the deviated primary melt stream occurs once it approaches the opposite wall of the
mold. As the primary melt stream further expands, the filling of the right side of the mold follows the pattern similar to that
of the cases of 51 and 71. However, the left side of the mold is filled with a pattern analogous to that of the gate of 31.

EFFECT OF GATING SYSTEM RATIO ON MOLD FILLING PATTERN
As discussed above, the deviation of the metal flow occurs from the centerline of the mold for the gate of 11 1 as it enters
the mold. The flow deviation may be primarily attributed to the presence of the melt pressure gradient within the widened
gate, which results from the original design of the nonpressurized gating system. Based on such a consideration, the cross
section area of the runner was increased to 52.2 from 4.52, which changed the gating system ratio from 1:2.6:3.18 to
1:3.18:3.18. This change of the gating system ratio was attempted to change the gating system type from nonpressurized to
nonpressurized-pressurized system. Figure 9 illustrates the sequence of the mold filling for the gating system with a ratio of
1:3.18:3.18 and gate dimension of 11 1. It can be evidently seen that the change of the gating system ratio eliminates the
deviation of the metal flow after entering the mold, which creates a flow pattern similar to that of the case of the gate of 9 1.

The phenomenon of the metal flow deviation from the centerline of the mold in the nonpressurized gating system may be
further elucidated by the fundamentals of fluid mechanics. From Figure 7, it is evident for the gating system ratio of
1:2.6:3.18 that the velocity of molten metal on the left side of the gate is higher than that of the right side. The Bernoullis
equation can be expressed

Const H
g
V
g
P
= + +
2
2
(2)
where P is the pressure of melt, V is the melt flow velocity, H is the metal head, g is the gravity acceleration, and is the
melt density. As equation (2) being applied to the melt flow in the gate area, except for variables P and V, the other
parameters are constant, which indicates that the higher velocity leads to the lower pressure of the melt flow. Figure 7 shows
evidently that the melt entry velocities on two sides of the mold centerline are different. The difference in the melt entering
velocities causes the variation of the pressure in the gate. The presence of the pressure gradient in the gate deviates the melt
flow away from the centerline of the mold.
This pressure difference may result in a vortex flow in molten metal, which causes two forces (inertia force and vortex force)
exerted on the melt. The vortex force is perpendicular to direction of molten metal flow. Therefore, the combination of these
two forces forms a resultant force in a direction different from that of the inertia force. Consequently, the direction of the melt
flow is changed by the emergence of the resultant force.

For the experimental trials with the gate size of 31, 51, 71, and 91, the gating system is nonpressurized-pressurized, in
which the gate is pressurized (The system of 111 (1:3.18:3.18), despite that the ratio of the runner to gate is one, could still
be considered as an un-pressurized-pressurized due to the presence of friction force and viscous force resulting from the melt
temperature drop). From Figures 3-6 and 9, almost no variation of the melt entry velocities in the gate on both sides of the

0.3 sec 0.6 sec 0.8 sec

1.0 sec 1.2 sec 1.4 sec
Fig. 9. Mold filling pattern of gate 111 (1:3.18:3.18).

mold centerline is observed. Based on equation (2), the pressure distribution of the melt inside the gate should be
symmetrical to the centerline of the mold. Hence, no deviation of the melt flow from the centerline is present in these cases.

EFFECT OF GATE GEOMETRY ON MOLD FILLING
Figures 10 and 11 display a sequence of real-time motion clips of mold filling for the gate dimensions of 61.5 and 4.52,
respectively. It should be pointed out that these two designs have the same cross section area as the gate of 91. Examination
of the video clips manifests the difference of mold filling patterns among the gate designs of 61.5, 4.52 and 91 (Figure 6).
Apparently, the pattern of mold filling for the gate 61.5 is analogous to that of 71. The similarity of the filling patterns
between 4.52 and 31 is observable. The difference in mold filling patterns by the change of gate is mainly due to the head
pressure increase of the molten metal at the gate exit resulting from an increase in the gate thickness for the cases of 61.5
and 4.52. As the metal flow proceeds further in the mold, the thickness of the metal flow is reduced, and consequently its
head pressure tends to decrease. The reduction in the head pressure of the molten metal as melt moves further in mold leads
to an increase in the velocity of the metal flow, which can be determined by Equation (2). The velocity increase, which is
experimentally evident in Figures 10 and 11, should be responsible for the resulted flow patterns.

EFFECT OF GATE THICKNESS ON MOLD FILLING
In an effort to understand the effect of the gate thicknesses on mold filling, three different gate thicknesses of 1, 1.57 and 2
with the same width of 7 were experimented. As shown in Figures 12 and 13, the mold filling pattern of the gate 72 is
similar in high extent to that of the gate 71.57. For these two cases, molten metal moves straightforward without having
flow expansion once entering the mold. The feature of no flow expansion differentiates the mold filling pattern of the gates
71.57 and 72 from that of the gate 71. The difference in the mold filling pattern between the gate71, and the gates
71.57 and 72 results from the variation of entering melt thicknesses due to the change in the gate thickness, which was
discussed in the previous section.

0.2 sec 0.5 sec 0.8 sec

1.0 sec 1.2 sec 1.4 sec

Fig. 10. Mold filling pattern of gate 61.5.

0.3 sec 0.5 sec 0.8 sec

0.9 sec 1.1 sec 1.2 sec


0.3 sec 0.6 sec 1.0 sec

1.2 sec 1.4 sec 1.6 sec


0.3 sec 0.6 sec 0.8 sec

1.0 sec 1.2 sec 1.4 sec


Fig. 14. The molten metal in outlet of gate 72.

To further understand the filling pattern, a mold with the gate 72 was sectioned for direct visualization of flow motion in the
gate. Figure 14 reveals the moment of the molten metal exiting the gate 72. It appears that only a portion of the gate was
filled with the molten metal. The uncompleted gate filling should be attributed, at least in part, to the use of the
nonpressurized gating system for this case. Since the filling patterns between the gates 71.57 and 72 are very similar, the
uncompleted gate filling also expectedly took place in the gate 71.57. It is worthwhile mentioning that, for further analysis
of filling flow; an effective cross-section area, which is completely filled with molten metal, should be defined during the
design of a gating system.

CONCLUSION

In this study, direct observation was employed to experimentally observe the flow pattern for the mold filling. The results
show that an increase in the width of the gate with a constant thickness results in the variation of mold filling, of which three
different patterns were observed. They are the narrowing, expansion and deviation of molten metal fronts. It is also evident
that the change of the gating system type deviates flow away from the centerline of the mold which leads to a great influence
on mold filling pattern. A considerable effect of the geometry of a gate with a constant cross section area on flow pattern has
been observed, which primarily results from the change of the metal head pressure at the entrance of the mold.

In nonpressurized gating systems, the deviation of melt flow from the centerline of the mold or incomplete gate filling tends
to appear. To avoid the problem of melt flow deviation or incomplete gate filling, a gating system ratio of G: R=1 is
recommended for the design of an effective gating system.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors would like to express their appreciations to the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
and Ministry of Science, Research and Technology of Iran and Iran University of Science Technology for financial support.

REFERENCES

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4. Hwang W. S., Stoher R. A., Fluid Flow Modeling for Computer-Aided Design of Castings, Journal of Metals, pp 22-30,
(1983).
5. Fuli Z, Zhaohao, Hydraulic Simulation Study on Three-Step Gating Systems, AFS Transactions, vol.99, pp 57-62,
(1991).
6. Jong S. H., Hwang W. S., Measurement and Visualization of the Filling Pattern of Molten Metal in Actual Industrial
Casting, AFS Transactions, vol. 99, pp 489-497, (1991).
7. Jong S.H, Hwang W. S., Three-Dimensional Mold Filling Simulation for Casting and Its Experimental Verification,
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Cope
Drag
Melt Flow
Gate
9. Runyoro J, Boutorabi S.M.A., Campbell J, Critical Gate Velocity for Film Forming Casting Alloys, a Basis for Process
Specification, AFS Transactions, vol. 100, pp 225-234, (1992).
10. Xue X, Hansen S.F, Hansen P.N, Water Analog Study of Effects Gating Designs on Inclusion Separation and mold
filling control, AFS Transactions, vol. 101, pp.199-209, (1993).
11. Xue X, Hansen S.F, Hansen P.N, Numerical Simulation and Experimental Verification of Mold Filling Processes
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12. Yeh J.L, Jong S.H, Hwang W.S., Improved 3-D Mold Filling Model for Complex Casting and Experimental
Verification, AFS Transactions, vol. 101, 1055-1063, (1993).


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Effect of Gating Design on Mold Filling

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