Hydraulic simulation for optimization of lift tube in low pressure casting

Effects of lift velocity, structure size of lift tube on the flow morphology of mold filling were investigated by hydraulic simulation. It is found that a larger interior diameter (D₁) is beneficial to rapidly and smoothly filling mold with a given working section (S₄) of lift tube. S₁/S₂ (ratio of interior section and out-section) should be lower than 1.6, and S₄/S₂ ratio has the more significant effect on the flow morphology than the lift tube structure has when D₁ (interior diameter) is lower than 50 mm. S₁/S₂ should be lower than 3, and the lift tube structure has the more remarkable effect on the flow morphology when D₁ is more than 50 mm, so the proper conic ingate can be used to optimize the lift tube structure but S₄/S₂ should be lower than 25.