Taguchi Optimisation of Cast Geometries for A356/Organic Particulate Aluminium Alloy Composites Using a Two-Phase Casting Process

Abstract

The A356 alloy is widely known to exhibit an extremely superior casting, machining, mechanical, and corrosion resistance properties. Despite these, it constitutes an environmental nuisance at its improper disposal for worn-out engine blocks. Also, organic reinforcements have the potentials to reduce the environmental impacts of composites. Consequently, there exits significant research potential to fuse A356 alloy with organic materials to obtain enhanced composite properties. In the area of aluminium matrix, as melting and solidifications of materials are done the accuracy of measurements is driven by the huge array of process parameters and the geometrical aspect of cast components is important. For these reasons, we attempt to solve the problem of optimising the geometry of casts in a complicated scenario with the use of the robust Taguchi's methods. To optimise the framework, the significant process parameters are identified and their effects studied in a route using Taguchi, Taguchi-Pareto and Taguchi–ABC methods. Parameters such as the volume of the cast, length, weight, density, height, width, breadth, weight loss and the total weight of organic materials infused into the melting process were studied for parametric changes, interactions and optimisation with L27 orthogonal array. The analysis of variance for the A356 alloy cast revealed that the density parameter of cast 1 had the highest and major significant effect on the casting process with a variance of 333573, followed by weight parameter of casts 1 and 2, total weight of organic material parameters and weight loss with the variance values of 0.007, 0.005, 0.001 and 0.004, respectively. The variance of other parameters was insignificant to the A356 alloy cast.

Geometrical Parametric Optimisation of A356 Alloy Composite in a Two-Stage Casting Process for Automobile Wheel Covers using Response Surface Methodology

“…Although the literature review suggests a long history of geometrical optimisation of solid objects, only recently have researchers commenced to study the casting process. As a consequence, the only available optimisation tool in this research domain is the Taguchi method, which has been applied recently by a group of researchers [31]. The need for more testing has, therefore, prompted the current authors to consider the advantages and disadvantages of the RSM as a candidate for investigation.…”

“…So, three case studies were considered for analysis. These case studies were drawn from a publication of Nwafor et al [31] and analysis drawn from Tables 2, 3 and 4 of the paper. These tables from Nwafor et al [31] reveal the basic data that serves as input in the development and analysis of the RSM model proposed in this work.…”

“…These case studies were drawn from a publication of Nwafor et al [31] and analysis drawn from Tables 2, 3 and 4 of the paper. These tables from Nwafor et al [31] reveal the basic data that serves as input in the development and analysis of the RSM model proposed in this work. They contain the original data that transformed into the analysed parameters and their associated levels.…”

“…However, during the transformation of the cast specimens from the canoeshaped outlook to cuboid-shaped outlook, some weight losses are expected in the casting process, which is accounted for in the data. Furthermore, the total weight of the organic material is also of interest and the data is revealed in Nwafor et al [31]. Furthermore, concerning Table 3 of Nwafor et al [31], nine samples were used in the experimentation apart from the control sample.…”

“…Furthermore, the total weight of the organic material is also of interest and the data is revealed in Nwafor et al [31]. Furthermore, concerning Table 3 of Nwafor et al [31], nine samples were used in the experimentation apart from the control sample. Here, to obtain the input data, the mean of three consecutive values (the first method) was used.…”