Application of response surface methodology for modeling the properties of chromite-based resin bonded sand cores

Abstract

Resin bonded sand cores are increasingly used in applications where high dimensional accuracy is required. The quality of the cast products produced using this system mainly depends on the properties of the core, namely compression strength, shear strength, tensile strength and permeability, which in turn depends on the process parameters, such as amount of resin, amount of hardener, number of strokes and curing time. The relationships of these input parameters with the properties of the core are complex in nature. In the present paper an attempt has been made to establish the said input-output relationships with the help of response surface methodology. A three level central composite design is utilized to conduct the experiments. Surface plots are used to study the effects of amount of resign, amount of hardener, number of strokes and curing time on the responses. Moreover, analysis of variance test has been conducted to determine the statistical adequacies of the developed models. The prediction accuracy of the non-linear models have been tested with the help of twenty test cases, and found reasonably good accuracy.