Effect of aluminum silicate fiber modification on crack-resistance of a ceramic mould

To improve the crack-resistance of the mould for silica sol bonded quartz based ceramic mould casting, aluminum silicate fibers with the diameter ranging from 5 μm to 25 μm and the length about 1 mm were dispersed in the ceramic mould. The effect of the aluminum silicate fibers on the tensile strength, shrinkage rate and the cracking trend of the ceramic mould were investigated. In the ceramic slurry, quartz sand was applied as ceramic aggregate, silica sol containing 30% silicon dioxide as bonder, and the weight ratio of quartz sand to silica sol was 2.69; the dispersed fibers changed from 0 to 0.24vol.%. The mould samples were formed after the slurry was poured and gelled at room temperature, and then sintered at different temperatures ranging from 100 to 800 ℃ to measure the tensile strength and shrinkage rate. The results show that, with the aluminum silicate fiber addition increasing from 0 to 0.24vol.%, the tensile strength increases linearly from 0.175 MPa to 0.236 MPa, and the shrinkage rate decreases linearly from 1.75% to 1.68% for the ceramic mould sintered at 400 ℃, from 1.37% to 1.31% for the ceramic mould at room temperature. As the sintering temperature was raised from 100 ℃ to 800 ℃, the tensile strength increases, and the shrinkage rate decreases at all temperatures, compared with those without fiber dispersion, but their variation patterns remain the same. Furthermore, the cracking trend of the mould and its decreasing proportion were defined and analyzed quantitatively considering both effects of the fiber dispersion on the strength and shrinkage. The cracking trend appears to decrease linearly with increasing fiber content and to reach the maximum reduction of 28.8% when 0.24vol.% fiber was dispersed. Therefore, the investigation proposes a new method to improve the crack-resistance of the ceramic mould, i.e., inorganic fiber dispersion into the ceramic mould.