Effects of the Wettability Between the Coating and the Liquid EPS on the Filling Process of Lost Foam Casting

This paper aimed to investigate the effect of the surface properties of refractory aggregates on the melt velocity of A356 alloy lost foam casting (LFC). The contact angle between the refractory aggregate and the liquid expanded polystyrene (EPS) was measured by a contact angle meter. The present study utilized a two-phrase flow simulation method to analyze the effect of contact angle on permeation velocity. A permeation experiment was designed based on the contact angle of refractory aggregates to simulate the actual discharge process of EPS decomposition products due to the invisibility of the filling process. A one-dimensional casting experiment was employed to obtain data on melt filling capacity with different coatings. The morphological studies of refractory aggregates and liquid polystyrene were carried out by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The results showed that both the permeation rate of liquid polystyrene and the filling capacity of the melt increase with increasing wettability between the coating and liquid polystyrene.