Shrinkage pores and fatigue behavior of cast Al-Si alloys

The fatigue strength of cast Al-Si alloys is strongly sensitive to the presence of casting defects. Extensive rotating bending fatigue testing of cast AlSi7Mg alloy at room temperature and 50 Hz is reported showing that shrinkage pores are the critical casting defect. The porosity of selected fatigue specimens extracted from castings is characterized with metallography using different pore sizing criteria. Data are fitted to EVS distributions and used for critical size prediction. Fatigue fracture surfaces are inspected in the SEM and the critical pores originating the fatigue cracks identified and measured according to criteria used in the metallographic inspection.